Liz Truss Says UK Could Share Vaccine Doses With Other Countries

Liz Truss has said the UK is open to working with 'friends and neighbours' in deploying coronavirus vaccines, but will only share Covid-19 jabs once the country's population has been inoculated.

The secretary of state for international trade said the UK wants to work with other countries in the fight against the pandemic, but this would not interfere with the government's current targets to vaccinate vulnerable groups.

PA

Speaking on Sophy Ridge on Sunday, she said: "Of course, we first need to make sure that our population is vaccinated.

"We have a target to get the most vulnerable vaccinated by mid-February.

"It's a bit too early to say about how we would deploy 'XX' vaccine, but we certainly want to work with friends and neighbours, we want to work with developing countries because we're only going to solve this issue once everybody in the world is vaccinated.

"We're also working to keep trade flowing, which is really important, keep tariffs low or eliminated on medical goods and supplies so that we can make sure that all the world benefits from the expertise here in the United Kingdom."

Having insisted that the UK population would have to be jabbed before further distribution of vaccines would be considered, Truss cautioned that 'vaccine nationalism' must be avoided.

She said: "What we know about the vaccination programme is this is a global problem and we need a global solution.

"We're only going to be able to deal with this disease if we get everybody vaccinated across the world.

"It's vital we work together, it's vital we keep borders open and we resist vaccine nationalism, and we resist protectionism."

Conservative former health secretary Jeremy Hunt echoed this sentiment, stating that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine could be 'transformational' in Africa.

He said: "With our large aid budget and our huge connections in Africa, that is certainly part of the world where the UK could make an enormous difference."

More than eight million people in the UK have now received their first dose of a vaccine, and more than 480,000 have received their second too.

The government believes it is on track to have vaccinated the 15 million most vulnerable people in the country by mid-February.

Topics: UK News, vaccine, Coronavirus, Politics, Health, Covid-19

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey