We must not be forced into lockdown because hospitals are overwhelmed by unvaccinated patients

Jab’s the job

FIRST, the good news: Boris Johnson has given the country much-needed certainty that both Christmas Day with the family and Boxing Day football can go ahead without new Covid restrictions.

The PM deserves credit for deciding that any fresh curbs must be based on hard data — not just blood-curdling forecasts from Sage, which have proved wrong so many times in the past.

But there’s bad news, too.

What Boris isn’t doing is ruling out a fresh form of lockdown to take us into the New Year and beyond if hospitalisations from Omicron spike — with all of the devastation that would bring for the economy and our mental health.

Nobody envies the position the PM finds himself in right now. The one salvation remains jabs and the jabs rollout — and that should remain the relentless focus of Boris’s attention.

A frontline hospital doctor has revealed up to nine out of ten patients in intensive care are unvaccinated, while most others have suppressed immune systems.

It is a perfect illustration of why those who have not done so should get their booster jab; and why the vaccine-hesitant should wake up to the danger they are putting not just themselves in — but the rest of the country too.

We cannot and must not be forced into another shutdown because hospitals are overwhelmed by unvaccinated patients.

Prof Rupert Pearse says the most common thing which desperately ill Covid sufferers say on the way into ICU is: “Can I have the vaccine now please?”

Doesn’t that say it all?

End stop & go

FROM the moment Chris Whitty issued his warning that people should only socialise if it “really matters”, it was inevitable Chancellor Rishi Sunak would once again be forced to open his chequebook.

Yesterday’s £1billion package is at least some relief for pubs and restaurants which saw bookings and takings plummet at what should be their busiest time.

But the destructive cycle of lockdowns followed by bailouts, must stop.

That means reforming the NHS so it no longer needs the economy to be shut down when a new variant turns up and, ultimately, learning to live with Covid just as we do other infectious diseases such as the flu.

The man in red

IT’S the perfect time of year for a very special old man to be flying around the world, ready to put on a famous red suit.

Not Santa, but World War Two special forces hero John Morris who, aged 99, has become the oldest known veteran to join the famous Chelsea Pensioners.

The Sun helped to fly him back from Australia to a well-deserved place at the old soldiers’ retirement home.

Happy Christmas, John.