TV & Film
Dr Hilary Jones has responded to claims that large mass-gatherings won’t happen ‘for years’
‘We need to get the R-rate down’
The GMB doctor, Dr Hilary Jones, has responded to the claims from a genetic epidemiology professor that restrictions on large gatherings will be in place for a ‘few years’.
Good Morning Britain’s Dr Hilary has responded to speculation that mass gatherings such as weddings and festivals won’t happen for a number of years.
It comes after Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, said on Sunday (February 7th) that restrictions on large gatherings are likely to be in place for ‘the next few years’.
Health editor of GMB and GP Dr Hilary said he thinks that would be a ‘worse case scenario’.
He told hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid: “We need to get the R-rate down.
“Currently we’re still seeing tens of thousands of new cases found every day, and that’s just the ones we’re testing, what about the ones we’re not testing?
“So whilst the R-rate is high, we’re encouraging new variants to emerge.
“The more virus that is out there, the more viral load amongst the population, the greater the chance of new variants and new challenges requiring more vaccines.
“Social isolation is the only way to prevent the virus spreading and whilst we have high numbers we have to be pragmatic and we have to say that mass gatherings are not a great idea.”
Speaking in an interview on Times Radio, Professor Tim Spector explained that the days of mass gatherings ‘are gone’ for several years.
He said: “I can’t see us suddenly having another Cheltenham Festival with no regulations again, I can’t see us having massive weddings with people coming from all over the world, I think for the next few years those days are gone.
“I think we should still continue to do the easy things, keeping our distance from each other in public, masks, hand washing etc, these things don’t cost really anything to do.”
He added: “I think we need to get used to that and that will allow us to do the things we really want to do more easily and more readily.”