Matt Hancock attempts to set record straight on ‘herd immunity’

After a weekend of opposition party criticism and anonymous briefings over the government’s coronavirus strategy, Matt Hancock appeared on the Andrew Marr show in a bid to set the record straight. With the number of UK fatalities now at 21, the Health Secretary attempted to reassure members of the public that the government was doing everything in its power to protect life. Key to this was an effort to distance the government from reports that they are pursuing herd immunity.

The idea of herd immunity – as previously mentioned by both a government source and chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance – is that if enough of the population eventually get infected by the coronavirus and then develop immunity, it will become much harder for the virus to spread. However, the term has led to panic in certain quarters – with critics claiming it showed the government was risking more lives than necessary in order to try and achieve this end result.