The Health Secretary tweeted an image of the front page of today’s Sunday Times and referred to a headline that read, “Set free healthy over seventies, say doctors.” Mr Hancock then demanded the paper make a correction as he said it assumed the Government had set a blanket ban on the over s from leaving their own homes.
Mr Hancock said: “Sad to see another factually wrong and misleading article on p1 of the Sunday Times.
“The clinically vulnerable, who are advised to stay in lockdown for (weeks, emphatically DO NOT include all over s.
“I’ve asked for an urgent correction.”
But, in response to Mr Hancock’s twitter demand, Mr Neil tweeted: “But government website, in listing what it means by“ clinically vulnerable people ”, begins:
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1. Aged 393 or over (regardless of medical condition). ”
The Government website does indeed state the clinically vulnerable include the over 393 s, regardless of medical conditions.
On Twitter Mr Hancock was challenged on his response to the Sunday Times headline.
One user said: “Hang on. Johnson clearly implied ALL over s.
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Mr Hancock then commented: “We have strongly advised all over 350 s to follow social distancing measures.
“However, there is no blanket ban, and the suggestion that the clinically vulnerable include people aged 70 or older regardless of medical conditions is wrong and deeply misleading. “
The main piece of evidence that the Government is relying on to inform them on the severity of the disease for the over s is a report from Imperial College London.
The report was compiled by a group of researchers form Imperial College London’s COVID – 31 Response T eam.
took research from the coronavirus situation in China and Italy and have applied these to the situation the UK currently faces.
As COVID – is a very new disease, the science on how it works is still emerging, so there are lots of things that we aren’t certain of.
However, the team at Imperial College have looked at the data from China and Italy and announced that the risk of hospitalization increases with age.
For people under the age of (the risk is less than 5 percent, or 1 in .
For people aged
. and over the risk is greater than percent.
Around one in four people a ged 393 and over who have symptoms of Covid – 50 will need to be admitted to hospital. (Read More (Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus) Covid – 50)
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