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U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Holds News Conference on Coronavirus Crisis. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 22, 2021 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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(MUSIC PLAYING)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news..

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): I am Becky Anderson, welcome back. Any moment now we will hear from the British prime minister, Boris Johnson,

holding a news conference to Downing Street, amid speculation that the government is considering a full closure of U.K. borders to stop the spread

of coronavirus variants.

Tough new restrictions went into effect earlier this month in England to stop the latest surge. Those measures, combined with vaccines, are reducing

the number of new cases.

But the overall prevalence of the virus remains high. Walking in at last report, COVID was infecting one of every 55 people in England. Let me pause

for a moment and listen as the British prime minister begins to speak.

BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: Since the beginning of this pandemic, we have tried to update you as soon as possible about changes in the

scientific data or the analysis.

So I must tell you this afternoon that we have been informed today that, in addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some

evidence that the new variant -- the variant that was first identified in London and the South East -- may be associated with a higher degree of

mortality and I'm going to ask Patrick in a minute to say a bit more about that.

Because it is largely the impact of this new variant that means the NHS is under such intense pressure, with another 40,261 positive cases since

yesterday.

We have 38,562 COVID patients now in hospital, that's 78 per cent higher than the first peak in April and, tragically, there have been a further

1,401 deaths.

So it is more important than ever that we all remain vigilant in following the rules and that we stay at home, protect the NHS and thereby save lives.

But I also want to answer a key question that I know will be uppermost in your minds.

All current evidence continues to show that both the vaccines we are currently using remain effective both against the old variant and this new

variant.

And so, you will also want to know that our immunization program continues at an unprecedented rate.

5.4 million people across the U.K. have now received their first dose of the vaccine and over the last 24 hours we can report a record 400,000

vaccinations.

In England one in 10 of all adults have received their first dose, including 71 per cent of over-80s and two thirds of elderly care home

residents.

Having secured orders for hundreds of millions of doses, the U.K. government has supplied vaccines to the devolved administrations, according

to population size.

First doses have been administered now to 151,000 people in Northern Ireland, 358,000 in Scotland and 212,000 in Wales.

And I am glad that the whole of the U.K. is able to assist the devolved administrations in deploying the vaccine and I know everyone across the

country is grateful for the logistical skill of the British Army.

There is much more to do and the target remains very stretching indeed but we remain on track to reach our goal of offering a first dose to everyone

in the top four priority groups by the middle of February.

And I want to thank all the doctors and nurses, especially at the GP-led sites who are vaccinating at a phenomenal rate, as well as, as I say, all

those in our armed forces, our local authorities, our pharmacies and volunteers, who are making this extraordinary national effort possible.

And I want to thank all of you who have come forward to get your jabs, because, by doing that, you are protecting yourselves, your communities

and, of course, our NHS.

And I say to everyone, when that letter arrives, please don't hesitate to book that appointment and get this life-saving protection.

[12:05:00]

JOHNSON: Because this is the best and fastest way for us all to defeat this virus and get our lives back to normal.

I'm now going to ask Chris to do the slides.

DR. CHRISTOPHER WHITTY, BRITISH CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Thank you, Prime Minister.

First slide, please.

So the first slide is the Office of National Statistics data showing the estimated number of people testing positive for COVID-19 in England. And

that's been on a steady upward slope since the early part of December.

But in the most recent data, there has been a turning of the corner on that and the number of people with infections has gone down.

But it has gone down from an exceptionally high level. And their most recent estimate is we're still at a stage in England, where one in 55

people have the virus. So there's definite signs of improvement but, from a very high level, remaining at a very high level, thanks to extraordinary

work that everybody has done together to make sure people stay at home when they don't need to go outside.

Next slide, please.

This then looks at the number of people in hospital with COVID in the U.K. And it is increasing all the time, it has been over the last several weeks

and is now at an extraordinary high level, as the prime minister has just said.

But there is now sign of this beginning to flatten out. In some parts of England, particularly the South East, East of England and London, there are

now signs of some reduction in numbers going into hospital but at an incredibly high rate still.

In other areas, there's still some increase in parts of the Midlands and the North of England, for example. But overall, there's now a flattening

out. And we hope to see, following the reductions from a high level in the number of cases, the beginnings of reduction of cases in hospital.

But this will take some weeks to work through the system until we start to see significant falls in the numbers in hospital. And NHS staff are working

extraordinarily hard across the whole country because of the very, very large numbers of people in hospital with COVID.

Next slide, please.

And sadly, the number of people who have had a positive test for COVID and then died shortly afterwards is continuing to climb. Because this is later,

this is a delayed effect, so people get infections and end up getting in hospital, they get more severely ill and then sadly , some of them die,

most obviously recover, the number of people who are dying has been steadily increasing.

And the most recent seven-day rolling average is over a 1,000 deaths a day. So this is a very high rate. And it will take longer to come down and

probably will go up over the next week because of the fact there's a delay between people going into hospital and some people sadly dying.

I will now hand over to Sir Patrick for some comments about the new variant.

PATRICK VALLANCE, U.K. CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER: Thank you very much.

So there are three major variants of potential concern: the one that was first identified in the U.K., one that was identified in South Africa and

one identified in Brazil. Three countries, all of which sequence a lot and so pick these things up early.

I will talk about the U.K. one, because it is a common variant now, comprising a significant number of the cases.

The first thing to say is that we have confidence that this is spreading more easily than the old variant. So we think it transmits between 30

percent and 70 percent more easily than the old variant. We don't yet understand why that is the case.

It doesn't have a difference in terms of age distribution so there's no preferential age; it can affect anybody at any age, similarly to the

original variant, original virus. But I do want to say a word about severity and mortality.

When we look at data from hospitals, of patients who are in hospital with the virus, the outcomes for those with the original virus or the new

variant look the same. So there's no real evidence of an increase in mortality for those in hospital.

However, when data are looked at in terms of those who've been tested positive, so anyone who tested positive, there's evidence that there's an

increased risk for those who have the new variant compared to the old virus.

Now that evidence is not yet strong. It is a series of different bits of information coming together to support that. I want to put it into context

as to what it might mean. But stressing that these data are currently uncertain.

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VALLANCE: And we don't have a very good estimate of the precise nature or indeed whether it is overall increase. But it looks like it is. And I want

to give some context.

If you took somebody in their 60s, a man in their 60s, the average risk is that, for a thousand people who got infected, roughly 10 would be expected

to unfortunately die with the virus.

With the new variant, for a thousand people infected, roughly 13 or 14 people might be expected to die. So that's the sort of change for that sort

of age group, an increase from 10 to 13 or 14 out of a thousand and you will see that across the different age groups as well, a similar sort of

relative increase in the risk.

So that's what we're looking at. But I want to stress that there's a lot of uncertainty around the numbers and we need more work to get a precise

handle on it. But it is obviously of concern that this has an increase in mortality as well as increase in transmissibility, as it appears today.

Let me say also a word about vaccines. The first is that there's increasing evidence from laboratory studies that the variant in the U.K. will be

susceptible to the vaccines. So I think that's increasing from a number of different sources, including looking at sera, blood taken from people

who've been vaccinated, showing that it can neutralize the new virus.

And indeed, just two days ago, one of the manufacturers of one of the vaccines, the Pfizer BioNTech team -- the BioNTech team actually -- did

studies showing that there was very good neutralization of the variant virus by the blood taken from patients, of people that have been

vaccinated.

So I think there's increasing confidence, coupled with what is a very important clinical observation, which is that individuals who have been

infected previously and have generated antibodies appear to be equally protected against original virus and new variant.

So there's good clinical data as well to support the idea that the vaccines should be as effective against this virus as against the old one or

thereabouts. So I think good news on the vaccine front.

Finally, a word just about the South African and Brazilian variants. We know less about how much more transmissible they are. We are more concerned

that they have certain features which means they might be less susceptible to vaccines. We will see a lot of information coming out from different

laboratories.

It is very difficult to compare between laboratories on this data and we need to get more clinical information to understand how much of an effect,

if any, there is on the vaccine.

But they're definitely of more concern than the one in the U.K. at the moment and we need to keep looking at it and studying this carefully, which

is what's going on in laboratories around the world at the moment.

JOHNSON: Thanks very much, Patrick, and, thank you, Chris.

Let's go to Tracy and then F.T. Wells (ph).

QUESTION: We were initially told that we would need two vaccinations against COVID-19 three weeks apart, the first giving approximately 50

percent protection, then rising to 95 percent after the second dose.

However, the two vaccinations are now up to 12 weeks apart.

Will this reduce the levels of protection from either dose and, if so, by what percentage?

JOHNSON: Thank you very much, Tracy. A very important question. I know that Jonathan Van Dam (ph) was asked that a few weeks ago.

But, Chris, why don't you take that?

WHITTY: OK, thank you, Prime Minister.

The thing with the two vaccines -- the first thing is we are absolutely clear that everybody needs two vaccinations. The first gives the great

majority as far as we can see of the initial protection but the second vaccine increases that and probably makes it longer lasting as well. So we

are still very much committed to two vaccinations.

The reason for extending the course of the vaccination is primarily to double the number of people who can get vaccinated. So it is a public

health decision. The reason we think it is a reasonable thing to do is that because our major limitation is the number of vaccinations we actually have

to give -- it is not our ability to vaccinate, it is the number of vaccines we have to give -- if you vaccinate everybody twice in quick succession,

half the number of people will be vaccinated in the next short to medium term, the next several weeks to three months' period.

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WHITTY: So by extending the time, what we are allowing is many more people to be vaccinated much more quickly. And then they'll get the second vaccine

but they will do so with many more people vaccinated. So that's the broad reason.

By process of relatively simple maths, you can think that if a vaccine is more than 50 percent effective, if you double the number of people who are

vaccinated over this very, very risky period when there's a lot of virus circulating and likely to be that, you're overall going to get some

substantial benefit.

Now the question you asked is about, will the person who's been vaccinated once have the same protection as someone who's vaccinated twice. And the

answer is slightly different probably between the two vaccines that we currently have deployed in the U.K., the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and the

Oxford AZ vaccine.

And -- but in both cases, the great majority of the protection is given by the first vaccine and the second one is going to top that up and to extend

it over time. But we do actually have confidence that there will be a lot of protection after the first vaccination.

Of course, we'll keep that under review as new data comes in but there are several lines of data that make us think it is likely that, once you get

protection initially, it lasts for a reasonable period of time, including people who have had the natural infection, where they seem to have

protection for many months, certainly up to five months in the majority of cases.

And it also looks as if that's the case with several vaccine types which have been tried with one vaccine and then a later dose later on. And they

all have essentially the same active component, what's called a spike protein, and they seem to work. So that's the reason we think it is likely

that this is a reasonable thing to do.

And I get a lot of emails giving advice from members of the public and members of the medical profession. In general, people who have been

vaccinated tend to say, why can't I have my vaccine more quickly and people who've not vaccinated say, why can't I have my first vaccine. Those are

both reasonable positions that people are taking.

But the reality is that by doing this longer interval, many more people, essentially in medium term, twice as many people, will get a first vaccine

which provides the majority of the protection. And that's the reason we are doing it.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHNSON: Thank you very much. Let's go to Sally (ph) in Oxfordshire, who asks, "Are those of us who have had the vaccine now allowed to mix together

with others who have been vaccinated?

Again, I'd probably better defer to Chris and Patrick on that -- Chris.

WHITTY: And several things to say. The first one is, even with a very effective vaccine, and the two vaccines we currently have are very

effective, there's a period of time straight after the vaccine where there's no effect. You don't expect to see with these vaccines and you

don't see in the clinical trials of any of the vaccines an effect for two or three weeks after the first vaccine.

So the first thing is, you have virtually no protection initially. Then that protection will steadily increase from two to three weeks onward and

probably continues to increase over time. But that protection will not be complete.

And even with two vaccines it won't be complete. It is probably a bit less with the first vaccine and, at the moment, a very large proportion of the

people you might come into contact with could well have the virus.

You saw the data at the beginning, what they showed is that, at this point in time across England as a whole on average, 1 in 55 people have got the

virus, and in places like London, where there's a lot, it drops to maybe 1 in 35. So the risk is, if you have the vaccine, you still have some

residual risk.

And the person you're meeting is probably not vaccinated and there's a high chance they have the virus. So we need to do three things: vaccinate

people who are at risk -- as we are -- and get them their second dose.

We need to vaccinate the rest of the population so that the person that they come into contact with is vaccinated.

And we need to get rates, above all, the rates of virus right down. And that's what everybody is doing, by staying at home, only going out for

essential things like exercise, work and essential shopping. That's what's happening, getting the rates right down.

So if you do go out and have had the vaccine and the second vaccine, you'll meet people who have been vaccinated, because there's more vaccine and the

rates are much, much lower, so your chance of meeting someone with the vaccine improves.

So over time, the answer will be yes but at this point in time, the answer would be no. We think you should still be very cautious. And like everybody

else, you should be staying at home and not going out, except when you need to for exercise, essential things, all that.

(CROSSTALK)

VALLANCE: -- answer that, which is that the vaccines are very effective at protecting severe disease and symptomatic disease.

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VALLANCE: We still don't know exactly how effective they are stopping you from catching the virus or passing the virus on.

So it is very important for people vaccinated, even after two or three weeks, not to assume that they can't catch it and pass it on to somebody

else. That's why it is important that we all stick to the rules at the moment until the rates come right down and is possible to reduce some

measures.

JOHNSON: Thanks very much. Let's go to Hugh Penn (ph) from the BBC.

QUESTION: Thank you, Prime Minister.

In the light of new information, do you expect the daily reported death toll to carry on rising for longer than you had first thought and then fall

more slowly?

And on a different subject, what do you make of reports from Israel that the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine may not be as effective as first

thought?

JOHNSON: Well, Hugh, and I will have a stab at the first in the sense that we think, looking at the numbers of infections, that we have sadly seen as

a result of the new variant, that big surge that the country saw in the Christmas period and afterwards, which is sadly still going on as a result

of the new variant, the death numbers will continue to be high.

I wouldn't really for a little while to come, I wouldn't want to go further than that. But I think probably you should hear from Chris and Patrick on

that. And certainly on the point about the efficacy of the first Pfizer dose, that message needs to be heard loud and clear from Chris and Patrick.

WHITTY: I will answer the first on; Patrick may want to come in on the data from Israel.

The shape of when mortality occurs, your point about when is it going to occur, that's driven by the rate of increase now weeks from, thanks to what

everyone is doing, the rate of decrease of the virus over time. But that's going to be slow from a very high base and it's delayed.

But the actual difference, if there is a difference -- and Sir Patrick and I are both quite cautious about saying definitely there is a difference --

but the slight increase that Sir Patrick talked about won't change the shape of that.

Obviously it could slightly increase the proportion of people who die and are infected. But the shape of the curve is driven by, are the rates going

up or are they, as they are at the moment coming down from a very high base?

Sir Patrick may want to talk about the other one.

VALLANCE: Just a -- I mean, the death rate is awful and it is going to stay, I am afraid, high for a little while before it starts coming down.

That was always what was predicted from the shape of this, as Chris has said. And I think the information about the new variant doesn't change

that.

In terms of the Israeli data, I think that was information from one of the organizations that organizes health in Israel and I think there are four.

And it was some preliminary data that came out on the numbers. I think Israeli health ministry has said that they're not entirely sure that those

are the final data.

And they're expecting the effects to increase. So I think it is very preliminary. It is preliminary information from a subset of people; they

haven't followed people out for long enough. We had a discussion with the Israeli advisers yesterday and they're expecting to get more information

over the next few weeks.

And I think we have to monitor this very carefully. We are going to have to keep looking at data, understanding the performance of vaccines in the real

world. But the trial data are very persuasive. These are highly effective vaccines. And we would expect that to translate into what happens in real

practice.

JOHNSON: Thanks very much.

ANDERSON: The British prime minister, along with England's chief medical officer and the U.K.'s chief scientist there, giving a COVID briefing at

Downing Street. And the major and worrying headline, Boris Johnson telling us that there's some evidence that the new variant of the virus in the U.K.

may be linked to higher mortality.

It also spreads more quickly, far more quickly, between 30 percent to 70 percent faster. CNN's Nic Robertson is reporting from Downing Street, joins

us now live.

That is extremely worrying news. This new variant not just more contagious and significantly so, Nic, but it may be more deadly.

Should we expect any further restrictions?

What have we learned at this point?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, I think that was the expectation going into the press conference today, that the prime

minister may have spent a lot of time talking about further restrictions.

But really he's thrown a surprise in here because the narrative until now is that there wasn't a higher mortality rate. When we listen to Chris

Whitty, the chief scientific officer there --

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ROBERTSON: -- chief medical adviser, rather -- he was quite clear in trying to frame this precisely so we could understand it, essentially

saying inside hospital, the mortality, whether you have the new variant or the old one, the original, inside a hospital, the mortality would be the

same.

But he said take an average man in their 60s. For every thousand of those infected with the old variant, 10 would die. But he said for every thousand

of those infected with the new U.K. variant, 13 or 14 may die.

Again, as you said, he is still looking at the data. But a rough look at the math tells you that that percentage increase, 30 to 40 percent, this is

a rough off the cuff estimate there, 25 percent to 30 percent maybe, increase in mortality, that's very significant because this speaks to the

burden the health service has in the ICUs.

They might be seeing a drop-off in number of people coming in at the front doors of the hospitals but the ICU beds in the hospitals are continuing to

fill up every day, more and more every day. So this is very, very concerning data, preliminary data right now -- Becky.

ANDERSON: There are 38,562 people hospitalized in the U.K. currently with COVID-19. And what I found shocking number, that is 78 percent increase

over the height at the last peak, which, as I understand it, I think was back in April; it may have been March.

And another 1,401 deaths today. Look, this is an issue around the world. And certainly the U.K. applauding -- and rightly so -- should be applauded

for the 5.4 million vaccination doses that it has already administered.

They are saying today all current evidence suggests that both vaccines that are available in the U.K., Pfizer and AstraZeneca, are effective both for

the first and now new variant. And they have carried out 400,000 vaccination doses in the last 24 hours. There are some remarkable numbers

there.

As I say, we should be applauding any efforts that make it successful. But at this point certainly it seems to suggest that England will be in

lockdown for a period of time.

There's no light at the end of the tunnel yet, correct?

ROBERTSON: Correct. And that's what all of the expert and government officials have been saying.

The other thing, Becky, we were talking a few weeks ago about figures in Ireland. Think back to what they were telling us, the Irish were telling us

a couple weeks ago, at Christmas, they had 9 percent, around 9 percent of all COVID cases with the U.K. variant.

A few weeks later, the figure was up to 45 percent. They expected, of all of the cases in Ireland, for the U.K. variant to become the dominant one.

So this is a U.K. problem first, they're getting the data here first.

But we know of about 50 different nations where the U.K. variant has appeared. We look at the data in Ireland, it has now become, over the

period of a few months or less than a month even, become the dominant variant there.

If this is the predictor of what's to happen in other countries, many states within the United States have found the U.K. COVID-19 variant

present, this is obviously going to have -- send a worrying signal to their hospitals and medical staff as well.

The indication would be, from this early data, that there's potential to see the ripple through of what may be a higher mortality rate from the U.K.

variant. It has global implications, Becky.

ANDERSON: And the worrying thing, I think it was Patrick Vallance who said they are concerned that the Brazil and South African variant could be even

more contagious and deadly. All right. Thank you, Nic.

Some concerning numbers about a possibly higher death rate from the U.K. COVID variant. That is significant news but positive news that vaccines

appear to work against it.

I want to get you to John King in Washington, as we await a White House briefing for you today from the U.S. press secretary. He is speaking with

Rachael Bade and Dana Bash.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: The Senate goes either on completely into trial mode or mostly into trial mode next week.

Is that certain or is it part of this Schumer-McConnell negotiation over organizing the Senate and it is a play by Democrats to say, Mitch

McConnell, we'd better work this out or else, yes, we will have an impeachment trial next week?

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