Leading scientist predicts that the UK will be Covid-free by August

**Tooting Carmen** · 05-08-2021, 01:28 PM

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknew...?ocid=msedgntp

Covid will no longer be circulating in Britain by August, one of the UK's top vaccine experts has predicted, as cases of the virus continue to plunge.

In an interview with The Telegraph a week after stepping down as interim head of the vaccine taskforce, Clive Dix said the population would be safe from the disease in a matter of months. "Sometime in August, we will have no circulating virus in the UK," he said.

The UK remained on track to meet its target of giving all adults at least one Covid jab by the end of July, he said.

Mr Dix said this should give adequate protection against both the original Covid strain and all known variants of the disease, meaning booster vaccinations could be delayed from autumn until next year.

He also urged Britain to lead the crusade against vaccine nationalism by sharing millions of spare doses with countries most in need.

It was Mr Dix's "personal prediction" that "we will have probably protected the population" in three months' time, adding: "All the variants that are known; I think we'll be safe against over the coming winter."

Almost two thirds of the UK adult population have received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, equal to nearly 35 million first jabs, with all those over 40 able to book appointments.

Although Britain has started reopening its economy, case numbers have continued to drop. About 14,000 people have tested positive for Covid in the past seven days, down almost 10 per cent on the previous week.

Mr Dix, who was initially deputy chairman of the taskforce under Kate Bingham before taking over in December, said the UK had been so successful in vaccinating its population that he believed the booster programme could be pushed back to early 2022.

"We may decide that we need to boost the immune response, and we've got the vaccine to do that. Whether we'll need to or not, I would think probably not, but we might still do it in case," he said.

"I really don't think it should be autumn. We should be thinking about boosting in maybe January or February, because the immune response will be strong."

He said the only caveat was for the most vulnerable in society, where the "immune response wanes a little bit faster" but that there was "no data saying it definitely will" be needed.

"We’ll be safe over the coming winter”
The UK now has administered more than 51 million jabs in one of the world's most successful vaccine programmes.

“We did it,” says Clive Dix. “We got the Government the vaccines they needed to protect lives, and get the economy in the UK going.”

He expects everybody in the UK to have been vaccinated at least once by the end of July, by which time “we’ll have probably protected the population from all the variants that are known,” he says, “and we’ll be safe over the coming winter”.

Mr Dix was part of the team that struck the series of deals at the start of the pandemic when there was no certainty any vaccine candidate would be successful. His more than 30 years of experience in the pharma industry - in which he sold companies to the likes of Pfizer, Chiron Vaccines, and Biogen - has proved invaluable.

Where the EU went into contracting mode and tried to knock pharma firms down on price, Mr Dix says the UK team took an entrepreneurial approach. “We just went out there and talked to the top companies, and said what would it take for you to sell us the vaccine first, how can we bribe you?”

Mr Dix quickly corrects himself. “Not quite bribe,” he says, “but, you know, we said to them, we can run clinical trials for you fast anywhere, if you need manufacturing in the UK, we can help you to build it. It was all done on the basis of a partnership.”