The Health Secretary has suggested that controversial plans to force all NHS staff in England to get jabbed are ‘under review’.
Sajid Javid claimed that Omicron is less severe and therefore poses less risk to patients than the Delta policy.
But he insisted yesterday during an appearance before MPs on the Commons health committee that it was still their ‘professional duty’ to get jabbed.
Javid claimed that 77,000 NHS workers haven’t had the vaccine yet, which is about 5% of the workforce. If they do not get it before April, they may be fired.
He noted, however that there is a lower risk of becoming seriously ill from the virus since jabs became mandatory.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has suggested that controversial plans to force all NHS staff in England to get jabbed are ‘under review’
‘The dominant variant at the time was Delta. The dominant variant now – in fact, almost all cases are Omicron,’ Mr Javid said. ‘I think it is right in light of Omicron that we reflect on all this and keep all Covid policies properly sort of under review.’
Some are concerned that mandatory jabs could lead to a worsening of the NHS’s workforce crisis. The deadline for hospitals to start preparing dismissal procedures for staff who have not been vaccinated has passed. This is the date after which workers will need to be vaccinated.
Mr Javid said ‘representations’ had been made to him about Omicron being ‘very different’ to Delta, in that while the former is more transmissible it is ‘intrinsically less severe’.
Although some had asked him to increase the compulsory requirement with boosters, other people have called for its elimination.

On Saturday, NHS employees protested in Trafalgar Square holding signs stating that’medical apartheid’ is not right.
Mr Javid has previously said universal vaccination is ‘unethical’, but that it should be compulsory in healthcare settings, and stood firm this month on a hospital visit when confronted by an anaesthetist who is refusing to have the jab.
Scotland and Wales do not intend to require jabs for NHS employees. The issue is currently being discussed in Northern Ireland.
Mark Drakeford, the Welsh First Minister, suggested that any unvaccinated worker from England be welcomed to Wales.

During Saturday’s protest against compulsory vaccines, NHS protesters hid their scrubs at Trafalgar Square.
Mr Javid also told MPs yesterday he will set up a National Vaccination Service to free up GPs as Britain ‘learns to live with Covid’.
To allow GPs to administer boosters, vital health checks have been suspended for elderly and vulnerable patients until April.
Mr Javid said: ‘What we can’t have is asking GPs to stop doing their regular work, that can be an emergency response now. In future we’ve got we’ve got to have a National Vaccination Service that is able to deal with Covid vaccines, as well as other vaccines, without drawing in workforce from the rest of the NHS.’
Yesterday, there were 94,326 Covid cases in Britain, and 439 deaths within the first 28 days after a positive test.