Latest updates: Boris Johnson tells MPs landlords could set criteria for entry, including demanding customers provide Covid vaccine certificate
- Pubs that check Covid status may be allowed to drop social distancing
- Lack of social care strategy left system weakened when Covid struck
- Boris Johnson warns EU not to ban Covid vaccine exports to UK
- Coronavirus – latest updates
- See all our coronavirus coverage
Jonathan Neame, chief executive of Shepherd Neame pub group, told the Today programme that making vaccination a mandatory prerequisite for attend a pub was “a fairly poorly thought-out idea” which could lead to young staff having to deal with intimidation from customers. He said:
I’m very concerned about the pressure we put on our young people – 50% of people (working) in pubs are under 25 – you’re going to force them to make some very challenging judgments, because they’re not qualified or trained as door staff, as they might be in the nightclub sector …
This is a fraught with difficulty I think, and it is, in my view, a fairly poorly thought-out idea at this stage.
Good morning. When the government published details of its review of the case for Covid-status certificates earlier this month, it did not attract a huge amount of attention. Partly that was because Boris Johnson was already on record as sounding sceptical. And partly that was because there has been a lot of confusion about what is being proposed anyway. At one stage the media just talked about “vaccine passports”. Then people began to differentiate between a vaccine document for use for international travel, and another for use domestically, when applying for a job, or access to a venue. And then these “vaccine passports” were rebranded “Covid-status certificates”, as ministers made it clear that they wanted people who have no not been vaccinated to get the same benefits by being apply to prove a recent negative test.
But yesterday, in a newsy session with the Commons liaison committee, Johnson sent the idea soaring to the top of the news agenda by appearing to suggest that he would be happy to see pubs exclude people who have not been vaccinated.
Related: Pubs that check Covid status may be allowed to drop social distancing
Domestic Covid Certificates – vaccine passports with testing – create a two-tier society.
Pregnant women & groups with more vaccine hesitancy won’t be able to live ordinary lives without great difficulty.
We are so far down the rabbit hole, we have forgotten we fell in.
If the government has got evidence that this is necessary for people to go to hospitality venues, let’s look at that evidence …
And indeed if it was necessary, why would you be leaving it up to individual landlords? If this was really a public health measure, you wouldn’t be saying, ‘Well, it is going to be a landlord discretion’ – you’d be saying, ‘This is the government’s view, this is what’s safe’. So there are many, many unanswered questions about this.
