Nadhim Zahawi has refused to say whether Boris Johnson was “wrong” to claim the link between Covid cases, severe disease and deaths had been “severed” by the vaccination programme.
Under repeated questioning, the vaccines minister did not repeat the remark, but also attempted to insist the prime minister had not misled MPs – despite the chief scientific adviser stating the link had not been “broken”.
It comes after the newly appointed health secretary, Sajid Javid, conceded daily cases could exceed 100,000 in the summer, but the government is expected to stick to the plan of easing remaining Covid restrictions on 19 July.
Speaking at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Mr Johnson told MP it was “certainly true” there was a “wave of cases” due to the impact of the Delta variant first identified in India.
Attempting to defend the government’s position, he added: “Scientists are also absolutely clear that we have severed the link between infection and serious disease and death. Currently there are only a 30th of the deaths that we were seeing at an equivalent position in previous waves of this pandemic”.
However, just two days before he made the remark, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told a No 10 press conference the vaccines had “weakened” the link between cases and hospitalisations, but stressed it was a “not a completely broken link, and we will still see increases in hospitalisations”.
Challenged multiple times on whether Mr Johnson was “wrong” to make the remark in the House of Commons, Mr Zahawi told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme: “The prime minister agrees with his chief scientific adviser and his chief medical adviser that we have severely weakened the link through the vaccination programme”.
He also replied “no” when quizzed on whether the prime minister had then misled MPs by suggesting the link had been “severed”, adding: “We’re dancing on the head of a pin here.
“What the PM was saying is he looks at the data on a daily basis and if you look at where we are in terms of case numbers today and what is happening in hospitals, it’s a very different look [than earlier in year].”
Mr Zahawi went on: “Ultimately the prime minister agrees with his chief scientific adviser that we have severely weakened that link and you see it in the numbers — we have to be cautious.
The minister also revealed Mr Johnson would front a No 10 press conference on Monday, where a final decision on the easing of the vast majority of Covid restrictions in England is expected to be announced.
He said guidelines would also be published, “on things like mask-wearing, there’s an expectation on people to wear masks indoors, in crowded places, on public transport. There’s both a personal responsibility and a corporate responsibility”.
