Ursula von der Leyen has taken a barbed swipe at Boris Johnson over his ‘space race’ approach to vaccines as she faces a huge backlash over the EU shambles.
The European Commission president complained that some countries saw the drive to inoculate populations as a Cold War style ‘confrontation’.
The comments, as she addressed students attending the online Warwick Economics Summit, follow bitter clashes between the bloc and Britain over supplies.
Meanwhile, German minister Peter Altmeier has dismissed comparisons with the UK’s faster rollout, saying Mr Johnson’s handling of the crisis had resulted in a higher death rate and ‘endless suffering to tens of thousands of families’.
The UK hit another vaccination milestone yesterday, with 12million people having been given jabs.
However, there are rising concerns today that mutant coronavirus strains could derail the huge push – with research suggesting the AstraZeneca jab is less effective against the South African variant.
Asked on a visit to Derbyshire if the lockdown timetable could be delayed by the worrying news, the PM said: ‘We are very confident in all the vaccines that we are using.
‘I think it is important for people to bear in mind that all of them we think are effective in delivering a high degree of protection against serious illness and death which is the important thing.’
In other developments in the pandemic today:
- The UK is on course to hit its target of vaccinating the 14.5million most vulnerable days before the February 15 target date, with 450,000 being jabbed every day;
- But Storm Darcy is bringing chaos with up to a foot of snowfall and 50mph winds causing crashes, rail cancellations and vaccination centre closures;
- A top immunologist at Imperial College London said the UK ‘can still win’ the fight against Covid because there will only be a ‘finite’ number of worrying variants;
- Illegal immigrants will be granted an ‘amnesty’ to come forward for Covid jabs amid concerns they ;
- Bosses who demand their staff get the coronavirus vaccine in order to work would not be breaking the law, ministers believe, amid fears employees could be forced into mandatory vaccination;
- Details of the UK’s hotel quarantine scheme will finally be announced ‘in the coming days’ as scientists suggest GPS could be used to help ensure compliance from arrivals;
- South Africa will suspend the start of its Covid-19 vaccinations with Oxford’s jab amid fears it does not work as well against the variant that emerged there;
- UK ministers have made clear they are looking at extending the school year in England amid fears the most vulnerable children have fallen further behind.
Ursula von der Leyen has taken a barbed swipe at Boris Johnson over his ‘space race’ approach to vaccines as she faces a huge backlash over the EU shambles
Mr Johnson (pictured last week) has been careful not to gloat over the UK’s faster rollout than the EU
Ms von der Leyen conceded last week that the UK had been able to act like a ‘speedboat’ compared to the EU’s ‘tanker’ in securing jabs.
And speaking to the summit on Saturday she said: ‘When I was your age the world was still divided into two blocs.
‘The superpowers fought to expand or maintain their sphere of influence. This world is long gone… yet the old confrontational mindset is back.’
Following her humiliatingly-abandoned threat to block exports to the UK after AstraZeneca faced production problems in Belgium, she said: ‘Think of Covid-19 vaccines.
‘Some countries view the search for a vaccine as a race among world powers, like the race for space in the 1960s.’
She added: ‘This is not a competition between Europeans, Russians, Chinese and Americans – this is too serious.’
Meanwhile, German economy minister Peter Altmeier – an ally of Angela Merkel – rejected criticism that it has a vaccination rate of just 3.7 per cent.
‘I don’t want to compare with Great Britain,’ he said.
‘Their number of infections is far too high to this day. The death rate is significantly higher than ours.
‘This has brought endless suffering to tens of thousands of families. So far we have come through the crisis much better in Germany.’
No10 has deployed extra testing into 11 areas of England where the South African strain is thought to be spreading in the community
The three Covid variants causing international alarm emerged in Britain, South Africa and Brazil
German economy minister Peter Altmeier – an ally of Angela Merkel – rejected criticism that it has a vaccination rate of just 3.7 per cent
A SAGE expert warned today that the UK could face lockdown restrictions for longer if the South African Covid variant becomes more widespread.
A study yesterday found the Oxford University jab had ‘minimal effect’ in preventing mild disease caused by the strain, suggesting vaccinated people may still be able to catch and spread it.
Professor Mike Tildesley, an infectious disease expert at Warwick University and member of SAGE, said the finding could have ‘significant implications’ on Britain’s lockdown-easing plans.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme: ‘It means that even with high levels of vaccination there will be a lot of people that could potentially get infected and could potentially pass it on and it may mean that more restrictions might be needed for longer if we can’t get on top of this.’
Despite the concerning new finding, UK ministers have urged Brits to keep faith in the British-made vaccine, saying there is ‘no evidence’ it will not block severe disease.
Mr Argar told the public not to lose sight of the main purpose of Covid jabs – which is to drive down hospital admissions and deaths to manageable levels.
The comments were echoed by vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi last night, who said preventing severe disease was the ‘vitally important’ factor for the vaccines.
Government sources insisted had not changed the plan to get schools back from March 8. However, they pointed out Boris Johnson had cited the threat of new variants as a factor that will be taken into account when decisions are made on easing lockdown.
So far there have only been 147 confirmed cases of the South African variant in Britain, but this is likely to be a vast underestimate because up until last week officials were only analysing 10 per cent of random positive swabs.
Scientists say the true number of cases is likely 10 to 20 times higher than the official count. No10 has deployed extra testing into more than 10 areas of England where the South African strain is thought to be spreading in the community.
Officials will analyse every positive result produced in postcodes in London, Kent, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Lancashire, Worcester and Walsall in the West Midlands, to prevent the strain from becoming widespread.
One of South Africa’s top infectious disease experts said today the Oxford jab should still protect against severe disease.
Professor Salim Abdool Karim, head of the country’s Covid response unit, pointed to the trial of Johnson and Johnson’s jab, which uses the same technology as Oxford’s and was shown to be 100 per cent effective at stopping Covid hospitalisations and deaths.
Mr Argar said this morning there was ‘no evidence’ that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is not effective at preventing severe illness from coronavirus.
He told Sky News: ‘There is no evidence that this vaccine is not effective in preventing hospitalisation, severe illness and death, which is ultimately what we’re seeking with these vaccines.’
The minister noted that the ‘dominant strains in this country are not the South African strain’, with ‘only a small number of cases of that’.
Meanwhile, despite the fast progress there are questions over whether the UK’s vaccine rollout could be disrupted by Storm Darcy.
Most of England and Scotland is now covered in snow, with temperatures plunging as low as -7C in Scotland as a ‘bitterly cold’ weather system swept in from Ukraine and the Black Sea.
Three of East Anglia’s largest vaccination centres remained closed due to the snow today, after initially shutting their doors on Sunday.
A yellow snow warning is in place across the eastern half of the UK from first thing today until midnight on Wednesday, running from the south coast near Brighton up to the Shetlands off northern Scotland.
A more serious amber warning is in place for Essex, Kent, Suffolk, Norfolk and a small part of south-east London, where forecasters are warning of power cuts. This will last until midday today.
Rail services have also been disrupted, with Southeastern advising passengers not to travel and Greater Anglia expecting disruption until midday.
In Norfolk alone, around 350 schools are closed because of the snow and ice, after sub-zero temperatures created perilous conditions on roads.
The Met Office says snow falls of up to 10cm (3.9in) will be widespread in the amber areas, increasing up to 30cm (11.8in). The heaviest snow is expected to be today before easing slightly tomorrow and Wednesday.
Unions push back at plan to extend school summer term by TWO WEEKS as Boris Johnson vows to go ‘flat out’ to help children catch up after Covid
Unions were today pushing back at plans to extend the school year in England as Boris Johnson vowed to go ‘flat out’ to help children catch up.
The PM said getting pupils’ learning on track was the government’s ‘single biggest priority’ amid fears the most vulnerable have fallen even further behind during the pandemic.
The comments came after it emerged ministers are looking at continuing the summer term for another two weeks, with the holiday time redistributed to existing breaks in the autumn and winter.
Study during the warmer months could be easier as windows and doors can be kept open in school buildings to improve ventilation and reduce the risk of coronavirus spreading.
A new study has found that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds found remote learning significantly more difficult than other students last year.
However, unions have signalled they will oppose the changes, insisting parents are ‘craving getting back to normal’.
On a visit to a vaccination centre in Derbyshire this afternoon, Mr Johnson said Education Secretary Gavin Williamson will be announcing a full catch-up blueprint soon.
‘We have got to work flat out now as a country as a society to remedy the loss of learning that we have had,’ he said.
The extension is being considered as No10 insisted that the worrying news about the AstraZeneca being less effective against the South African variant had not changed plans to get children back in classrooms from March 8.
Many schools across England are due to break up for the summer holidays on Friday July 23.
A two-week extension would therefore see pupils continuing to attend class during the first week of August.
The government is looking at continuing the summer term for another two weeks, with the holiday time redistributed to existing breaks in the autumn and winter (file picture)
Asked on a round of interviews this morning whether ministers are considering making the summer term longer, health minister Edward Argar told BBC Breakfast: ‘It’s quite right that Gavin (Williamson, the Education Secretary) is looking at a whole range of things to see how we can make sure the impact on them is minimised to the extent that’s possible.
‘But it would be premature for me to comment on what may or may not be what he does announce.’
Boris Johnson has said schools across England will not reopen until March 8 at the earliest.
The Prime Minister has said he will publish a lockdown exit strategy later this month amid mounting pressure from Tory MPs to bring forward a return to classrooms.
Changing the school year is one of a number of options reportedly being looked at by Number 10 as the Government develops its plans to help students catch up on lost time.
Government sources made clear that no decisions have been taken at this stage.
But there are reports the two weeks of lost summer holidays could be added to the autumn half-term and the Christmas holidays.
Extending those holidays would also provide a longer so-called ‘fire break’ in the colder months, providing more time for infections to fall.
As the policy work continues, resarch by non-profit body ImpactEd again highlighted the damage to the prospects of children.
Its study monitored 62,000 pupils in England through eight months of 2020 to assess the effect of online schooling during the pandemic.
Their report, Lockdown Lessons, found that among pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds – those at schools eligible for the Government’s Pupil Premium grant – only 45 per cent said they understood their schoolwork in lockdown, compared with 57% among other students.
The survey assessed pupils using a range of measures including their home learning environment, their metacognitive strategies and their learning habits, in order to determine a ‘Covid-19 Learning Index’.
It found pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds gave their home environment a 6% lower score than other students and reported lower scores on metacognition, leading to a sharply lower Covid-19 Learning Index score of 3.21 compared with 3.35 from non-disadvantaged pupils.
‘Across all of these learning measures, and those associated with wellbeing, students eligible for Pupil Premium reported worse than average outcomes,’ the report said, adding disadvantaged students had also scored 5 per cent lower on questions about their resilience.
The report’s authors recommended that ‘post-lockdown support should be carefully evaluated to ensure that pupils who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds are benefiting’.
‘If interventions are not having the desired effect, they should be stopped,’ the report said.
The survey also found pupil wellbeing overall across the first period of lockdown was perhaps not as adversely affected as feared.
Using a 35-point scale, the average score for wellbeing was 23.8 in May, 24.1 in June, and 24.0 in July, compared with a pre-lockdown score of 23.6.
Pupils in years 10 and 11 reported the greatest challenges with motivation, the survey said, a condition which did not improve after lockdown.