Sajid Javid says we need to 'learn to live with Covid'
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In a tense stand-off with Sky’s Kay Burley, the Health Secretary stood by comments made at a press conference on Wednesday where he compared COVID-19 to flu. But asked why he made such a comparison given the vastly different death rates, Sajid Javid said Britons can no longer “shutdown” the country because of a virus and demanded we move on as a nation.
Mr Javid aadded that he made such a comparison “because it was an example of how we need to learn to live with Covid.”
But Ms Burley pulled him up on the 151,000 deaths as a result of the virus, stressing the comparison should be made between seasonal flue and COVID-19.
But Mr Javid was adamant, as he hit back: “The impact of Covid has been the biggest since the Second World War.
“During that time we have, at a great cost, seen thousands and thousands of deaths.
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“But we have learned a lot about Covid.
“We need to learn to live with it, sadly people die of flu in a bad flu year you can sadly loose about 20,000 lives.
“But we don’t shut down our entire country and put in lots of restrictions to deal with it.
“We need to continue with our lives to continue with sensible and proportionate measures.”
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The Health Secretary went on to stress that “Covid is not going away” as he stressed the reality of life in this country going forward.
He said: “It is going to be with us for many, many years, perhaps for ever. We have to learn to live with it.”
But Mr Javid was clear that the UK has the correct measures through vaccinations, anti-viral and other treatments to aid public health as the country moves beyond restrictions.
He added how “testing infrastructure” is massively improved from when the virus first emerged, which he argued will help in the fight moving forward.
More to follow…
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