Boris Johnson's plan to lift all COVID-19 restrictions is a threat to the world: Experts

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to lift all COVID-19 restrictions in England on July 19 is not only a ‘threat to the world’ but it would also pave way for the emergence of vaccine-resistant variants, warned international experts as per The Guardian report. In an emergency summit, scientists and physicians have flagged concerns with Britain’s position as a global transport hub that would imply that any new variant in the country would swiftly spread across the globe. The international experts also expressed grave concerns about the plans that Downing Street has.

Reportedly, government advisers in New Zealand, Israel and Italy were among the ones who sounded an alarm over the British government's policy. Moreover, over 1,200 scientists backed a letter to the Lancet journal that warned that UK strategy could allow the development of COVID-19 vaccine-resistant variants that puts the entire world in danger after over a year of crippling pandemic. As per the report, an adviser to the New Zealand government told the summit that he and his colleagues were astonished at the approach being taken in England. 

Experts say unable to understand UK move

A professor of public health at the University of Otago and a member of the New Zealand Ministry of health’s COVID-19 technical advisory group, Michael Baker reportedly said that the officials have always turned to the UK in the Kiwi nation leadership when it comes to scientific matters. Therefore, he reportedly added, that it is “remarkable” that Britain is not following the “basic public health principles.” Another participant of the summit, Prof José Martin-Moreno of the University of Valencia, a senior adviser to the World Health Organization (WHO), also said that the experts cannot understand why the UK government is taking such a step despite the present scientific knowledge. 

A researcher who chairs a New York-based think tank, Access Health International and is a former Harvard Medical School researcher and a pioneering AIDS researcher, Dr William Haseltine expressed his concerns by reportedly saying that “What I fear is that some of the worst impulses in many of our states will follow the UK example.” He further added that he is “extremely dismayed” to witness a rapid rate of increasing COVID-19 cases in a population that is almost as vaccinated as they are. 

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