Following the discovery of the new ‘Omicron’ Covid variant, the Government decided that new Covid rules were needed. I’ve been asking the Government the necessary questions about these rules and ensuring they were debated and voted on by the House of Commons.
It’s reassuring that Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, who helped create the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, is optimistic that existing vaccines should be effective at protecting against serious disease caused by Omicron and that it would be “extremely unlikely” that it would cause a “reboot” of the pandemic.
The arrival of Omicron is the first Covid test our country has faced, with a substantial portion of the population vaccinated. Covid and variants will be with us “forever”, according to the Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance. We must learn to live with it accordingly.
The Regulations enforcing masks for a time-limited period, until 20 December, was not a big issue in my view. Although it is disappointing that we’ve moved back to a situation of mandating mask wearing by law, given it is only for a three-week period, I didn’t oppose them.
However, the Regulations bringing in beefed up self-isolation rules concern me greatly. Despite assurances by Ministers that this package of measures would be time-limited for three weeks, these Regulations do not expire until 24 March 2022.
They also fail to adequately define how someone is “suspected” of having the Omicron variant. This is a recipe for chaos. My concern is that if this strain is more transmissible, we will be very quickly back to a pingdemic, where swathes of people will have to self-isolate despite not having Covid and being fully vaccinated. It will lead to great damage to education, the economy and people’s lives and be a massive own goal when our country is trying to get back on its feet. I therefore voted against them.
The Covid Recovery Group of Conservative MPs that I lead in Parliament will keep asking the Government the right questions, with Labour and other opposition parties continuing to give them a blank cheque and failing to stand up for our economy or children’s education.