‘No real science’ to stop people vaccinated against Covid from seeing each other - or to stop travel

People who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 should be allowed to visit each other, an expert has said.

Professor Tim Spector, who leads the Covid Symptom Tracker app study run by King’s College London, has suggested that there is ‘no real science’ to stop those who are inoculated from meeting up.

Consideration for mental health

Prof Spector argues that consideration now needs to be given to the mental state of people who have been kept apart from their loved ones for a long time, particularly the elderly.

With the success of the vaccine rollout in the UK so far, which has seen more than 25 million people receive their first dose, it has been suggested that the rules restricting people from seeing each other need to start being relaxed.

He said: “I think we’re actually in a much better place than many people are telling us, and I, for one, I’m not worried too much about what’s happening abroad.

“I think we need to start talking about when people who have been vaccinated can start seeing other vaccinated people.

“And there’s no real science now stopping, for example, me seeing my vaccinated mother in a care home or, you know, wherever they live.

“So I think we need to start moving to this next area and realise that our plan is working, and that we were doing well.”

UK should be led by science

Prof Spector argued that if the UK was being led by the science then allowing people to meet up could be brought forward, and would take place sooner than the current date on the road map out of lockdown.

However, he argued that the UK is instead being led by politics and said he could “see the arguments for not splitting the country into two”.

He explained that the optimum scenario would be where both people have had two doses of the vaccine, although it would be unlikely people would become seriously ill after just one dose.

Prof Spector said: “The dangers after one dose are certainly that you’re not going to get anything that’s going to put you into hospital.