UK unveils winter COVID plans, including ‘plan B’ to mandate face masks, vaccine passports

[Stone]

UK unveils winter COVID plans, including ‘plan B’ to mandate face masks, vaccine passports

Plan B: Although the settings in which vaccination would be required are to be limited to 'large gatherings,'
the government added that extending the requirement more broadly 'cannot be entirely ruled out.'

Thu Sep 16, 2021 - 11:25 am EDT
LONDON (LifeSiteNews - slightly adpated) — The British government on Tuesday announced plans for the upcoming winter months, including implementing COVID-19 booster shots and the possibility of launching vaccine passports and reintroducing a mask mandate.

As part of a “winter COVID plan,” U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid has laid out a dual set of plans, A and B, outlining a strategy aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19 during the upcoming winter months, including the implementation of booster shots and the possibility of vaccine passports becoming a requirement in “certain settings.”

Javid announced his “plan A” strategy to the House of Commons Tuesday morning, explaining that “there are five pillars to this plan” and emphasizing in the first place “the importance of our vaccination programme.”

According to Javid, “[t]he latest statistics from the ONS [Office for National Statistics] show that almost 99 percent of COVID-19 deaths in the first half of this year were people who had not received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.”

But according to an analysis of the data presented by the ONS in the Daily Sceptic, the ONS research period from January 1 to July 2 does not account for the fact that the Alpha variant was dominant at the time, nor does it account for the low number of jabs administered at the beginning of the year. Accordingly, the Daily Sceptic concluded that taking the ONS data as confirming anything about the achievement of the jabs is “meaningless” and “misleading.”

In fact, Public Health England data published at the beginning of September show that, in the last month alone, around 70 percent of deaths among COVID-positive individuals was in the double jabbed.

Although Javid touted the supposed success of the jabs based on ONS data, he subsequently announced that booster jabs will be made available to over 50s and, indeed, those with underlying health complications who are under 50 years of age, describing the top-up shots as “an important way” to keep the virus at bay. In an interview on Good Morning Britain, Javid said that the booster program would commence “next week,” targeting “30 million people.”

During the same interview, Javid determined that the restrictive measures being introduced “will not be behind us” by 2022. “COVID is with us for years, it’s probably with us forever,” the minister said. “I think vaccination is with us for a long time … we will learn to live with it,” he added.”

12–15-year-olds are also set to be offered the shot, which is part of Javid’s promise to “renew our [the government’s] efforts to maximise uptake” of the abortion-tainted shots.

Additionally, in his address to Commons, Javid suggested that “it is highly likely that frontline NHS staff” will be required to receive the experimental jab as a condition of their employment, although he did not confirm this.

Secondary measures of testing for the virus and tracing those who have tested positive, enforcing isolation of those individuals, will form part of the government’s COVID “plan A.” Javid underscored the testing and isolation of COVID-positive asymptomatic individuals, despite numerous experts and researchers debunking asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 as “more myth than reality.”

Prefacing his announcement of “contingency measures,” to be “call[ed] upon only if they are needed,” the health secretary argued that “we’ve seen how quickly this virus can adapt and change, so we have prepared a plan B.”

Javid announced to Parliament that, despite his promise just two days earlier that vaccine passports would not be introduced in the U.K., “we’ll be holding that power in reserve,” opening up the possibility of restricting unvaccinated individuals in “certain settings.”

The supposed backup plan makes provisions for “legally mandating face coverings in certain settings,” as well as “a further measure of asking people to work from home, if they can, for a limited time, if that is supported by the data.” Many businesses that cannot support work-from-home arrangements, such as the hospitality industry, will receive limited financial support from the government if the order is implemented.

An accompanying document to Javid’s announcement, “COVID-19 Response: Autumn and Winter Plan,” outlines the conditions under which “plan B” would be enacted. If “the NHS is likely to come under unsustainable pressure,” and that the “data suggests further measures are necessary to protect the NHS,” then the additional restrictions will come into force. The exact figures which constitute “unsustainable pressure” were not clearly elucidated by the government.

LifeSiteNews contacted the Department of Health and Social Care for clarification on what specific conditions would trigger the enactment of “plan B” measures. A department spokesman told LifeSite that the determination is “complex” and that the government will be monitoring hospitalizations “and various other things” to assess the level of pressure. There is no one measurement, such as hospital bed capacity, that will force the introduction of the government’s contingency plan, he said.

Regarding the settings in which face coverings would become legally mandatory, the spokesman told LifeSiteNews that “close indoor settings” would require mask wearing. Vaccination would be required before entry into “large events,” which would likely include nightclubs, the spokesman confirmed. When pressed on specific venues, the spokesman suggested that details would only be revealed closer to the time in which “plan B” would be implemented.

Until the extra measures are imposed, the government is encouraging “the voluntary use of the NHS COVID Pass,” which will “certify individuals based on vaccination, testing or natural immunity status.”

However, if “plan B” is enforced, “at that point the NHS COVID Pass will change to display full vaccination only,” offering no opt-out through natural immunity or presentation of a negative COVID test for entry to those venues where the mandate applies. Those under 18 and “those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons” will be afforded an exemption to this rule under the proposed guidelines. No mention of moral or religious exemptions was made.

Although the settings in which vaccination would be required are to be limited to “large gatherings,” the government added that extending the requirement more broadly “cannot be entirely ruled out.”