COVID-19 should be treated like the flu and mass vaccination plans should be scrapped, the former chief of the UK’s vaccine task force has said.
Dr. Clive Dix, who was chairman of the government agency from December 2020 until April, is calling on Western governments to return to a “new normality” and a volte-face on the approach throughout the pandemic.
He warned that humanity needs to learn to manage the disease rather than focus on halting the spread of the virus.
Dix’s call comes amid hope that the Omicron variant is even less severe than the flu.
“We now need to manage the disease, not virus spread,” Dix said.
He added that “stopping progression to severe disease in vulnerable groups is the future objective.”
“We need to analyze whether we use the current booster campaign to ensure the vulnerable are protected if this is seen to be necessary,” he said.
Dix said the time has come for “mass population-based vaccination” programs to “now end.”
He called on leaders to urgently support research into Covid immunity beyond antibodies as it could help create vaccines for vulnerable people specific to Covid variants.
Dr. Dix helped pharmaceutical companies create the Covid jabs that have aided vulnerable people’s protection from Covid.
However, although he said he supported the booster campaign, he told The Observer that a new strategy is now needed.
“We should consider when we stop testing and let individuals isolate when they are not well and return to work when they feel ready, in the same way we do in a bad influenza season,” he said.
His comments come on the back of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises the government’s vaccine policy, saying that a fourth Covid jab is not yet needed.
