Chancellor Rishi Sunak may have to use the new health and social care levy intended to raise £12billion a year for the NHS and adult social care reforms to fund an indefinite booster programme instead.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak may have to use the new health and social care levy intended to raise £12billion a year for the NHS and adult social care reforms to fund an indefinite booster programme.
There are still cases of Omicron, a highly transmissible variant that has been spreading throughout the UK. The Treasury is currently working on plans to ensure that adults are vaccinated every 3 to 6 months.
The booster programme, which could cost as much as £5billion a year, may stay in place indefinitely in order to keep on top of any dangerous mutations that appear in the future, according to the Sunday Times.
The newspaper reports that it is understood the health and social care levy, intended to raise £12billion a year for the NHS and adult social care reforms, will be used to fund the unexpected expense.
According to a treasury source, the newspaper was told by a person familiar with the matter: “Vaccines will mean that you’re home and dry. So spend billions of dollars on vaccines.” This is exactly what we did.
“But, if this has not changed and that is basically life then the view is that every three-to six months another one comes along and that we all are going backwards.
‘If the assumptions have all changed, which it looks like they have, you quite quickly get to £4 billion or £5 billion per year, and that is just on vaccinations and boosters.’
According to The Times, insiders said that Covid will be an’much greater dominant feature’ of our lives than what we thought. This has led to a rethinking of spending.
In September, the controversial reforms which will raised £12billion a year via a 1.25 per cent hike in national insurance was passed in the Commons despite a brewing Tory rebellion over the highest tax increase Britain has seen in 70 years.
The booster programme, which could cost as much as £5billion a year, may stay in place indefinitely in order to keep on top of any other mutations. A booster clinic located in London
Boris Johnson claimed the plans mean that nobody in England will have to pay more than £86,000 in their lifetime to fund their care in later life and the money is also expected to help tackle NHS waiting lists.
According to the Sunday Times, however, it has been accepted by the government that the money will be used for a permanent pandemic response. This includes vaccinations, NHS Test and Trace and new Health Security Agency. The booster program is also included in the funding.
Last week, the Government initiated Plan B measures in response to the increasing number of Omicron variants cases. This includes the return of work from home, mandatory facemasks in public transport and shops, and the return to working in theatres.
On Tuesday, the MPs will be voting for tighter Plan C Covid-19 limitations, including “pub passports”, after pandemic modelling revealed that Omicron could lead to more hospitalisations this winter.
Boris Johnson, Downing Street and Mr Gove are believed to have resisted his calls for new crackdowns as Prime Minister facing a rebellion from the Conservative party over Plan B.
An infection wave is predicted, which could cause more than 2,000 hospital admissions per day, 175,000 hospital admissions, and 24,700 deaths, even in the most optimistic scenarios.
Even under the most optimistic of four scenarios modelled by experts – relating to how much Omicron might ‘escape’ vaccines and how effective booster jabs are – it’s predicted it could cause 25,000 deaths by the end of April without further social distancing restrictions.
The re-introduction of lockdown-style measures, similar to those endured last winter and spring, would mean Britain was ‘better able to mitigate this wave’, said Dr Nick Davies, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine LSHTM.
He stressed it was up to politicians to make the decisions, but added: ‘We do recognise that lockdowns have pretty devastating impacts on people’s lives.’
But, there are still serious concerns about accuracy. Omicron, for example, is assumed to be equally likely than the Delta variant in causing serious illness in individuals who were not vaccinated.
By contrast, early data from South Africa – one of the first nations where Omicron was identified – and England suggests Omicron might be naturally less likely to cause serious disease than Delta.