Tony Blair has branded unvaccinated people ‘idiots’ who are risking their lives this winter.
The former prime minister attacked people who are still refusing to get jabbed despite overwhelming safety and efficacy data.
He backed Boris Johnson’s decision not to introduce pre-Christmas restrictions, but described it as a ‘gamble’.
Mr Blair’s comments came on the same day the UK recorded more than 100,000 cases in a 24 hour period for the first time since the pandemic began.
Speaking to Times Radio, the former Labour prime minister said: ‘Frankly, if you’re not vaccinated at the moment and you’re eligible and you’ve got no health reason for not being vaccinated, you’re not just irresponsible, I mean you’re an idiot.
‘I’m sorry, I mean that is, truthfully you are. Because this Omicron variant is so contagious, if you’re unvaccinated and you’re in circulation, you’re going to get it. And … that is going to put a lot of strain on the health service.’
He added: ‘We shouldn’t target these people who are unvaccinated in a heavy-handed way, but we should be trying to go after them and persuade them.
‘There may be all sorts of reasons, but honestly it is in their own interest, never mind the public interest, for them to get vaccinated.’
Asked about the ‘idiots’ comment in a later interview on BBC Radio 4, the ex-PM said ‘possibly I was a little too undiplomatic in my use of language’.
A top intensive care unit doctor working in London, the epicentre of the current wave, revealed yesterday up to 90% of patients fighting for their lives in hospital are un-jabbed.
Mr Blair described the Omicron wave as ‘the most serious moment in the pandemic’ and said he would be ‘immensely surprised’ if the real number of Covid-19 infections wasn’t higher than the 100,000 official number recorded.
Mr Blair answered ‘no’ when asked if he would have introduced restrictions this Christmas, telling Times Radio this was not because ‘some great piece of data’ would emerge, but because of the ‘pain’ of a full lockdown, that people have ‘been through too much’.
He added the ‘blunt instrument of a lockdown’ is inappropriate given the different vaccination statuses of people.
Asked about the allegations of parties at No 10 Downing Street, Mr Blair said ‘it’s not helpful’ but said he had ‘a lot of sympathy’ for Number 10 staff working on the pandemic response.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
from News – Metro https://ift.tt/3FlAw8P
0 Comments