Boris Johnson brands anti-vaxxers 'nuts' amid second spike warning
24 July 2020, 10:02
Anti-vaxxers are ‘nuts’ – Boris Johnson
The Prime Minister has hit out at so-called anti-vaxxers branding them "nuts" as he warned Covid-19 could return.
Boris Johnson said he wants "everybody to get a flu jab in the run-up to this winter".
During a visit to a GP surgery in London Mr Johnson reportedly said: "There's all these anti-vaxxers now."
Speaking to nurses at the Tollgate Medical Centre in Beckton, East London the PM said: "They are nuts, they are nuts."
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Speaking to Sky News, he said: "We want everybody to get a flu jab in the run-up to this winter and that's why we're rolling out the biggest-ever programme of flu immunisation.
"And we're aiming first of all for schoolchildren up to year 7, for pregnant women, for people over 65, for people who are shielded, but then we will be extending it to people who are 50 to 65.
"Now the reason for doing this is to protect the NHS in the winter months because obviously we have still got Covid, we have still got the threat of a second spike on Covid, and it's vital therefore to keep that pressure off the NHS by everybody getting a flu jab and I really hope everybody will."
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The Prime Minister said getting a flu jab is something that can help to "protect the NHS".
He told Sky News: "I just urge everybody in those groups to do it.
"It is something you can do to protect yourself against flu but it's also something that we can all do to protect the NHS.
The PM also revealed the length of time social distancing measures will need to stay in place will depend on how well we manage to control the spread of Covid-19.
Mr Johnson told reporter: "The use of face masks, the use of all the social distancing measures really does depend on our ability collectively to get the pandemic right down and to keep it down.
"I'm not going to make a prediction about when these various social distancing measures will come off.
"Obviously we have been able to reduce some of them. We no longer ask people to stay at home, we're trying to get back much closer to normal but our ability to dispense with the social distancing measures will depend on our continued ability to drive down the virus."
