UK’s Johnson: ‘No point’ if we don’t vaccinate everyone

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic during an interview Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” saying everyone needs to be vaccinated.

Speaking with host Margaret Brennan, the conservative leader said that he would call on the Biden administration and other wealthy nations to continue supporting COVAX, the World Health Organization-linked effort to deliver vaccines to poorer countries.

“There’s no point in vaccinating our populations if we don’t vaccinate everyone,” Johnson said Sunday.

Johnson also addressed his own administration’s response to the pandemic during his interview, including his government’s announcement Sunday that it had reached 15 million vaccinations. Johnson told Brennan the total amounted to “one in four” British adults receiving a dose of the vaccine.

Today we have reached a significant milestone in the United Kingdom’s national vaccination programme.

This country has achieved an extraordinary feat – administering a total of 15 million jabs into the arms of some of the most vulnerable people in the country. pic.twitter.com/wPKCXPT8Td

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) February 14, 2021

“We’re proceeding in a cautious way,” he said of efforts to reopen schools and other parts of British society.

Adding of the U.K.-born mutation of COVID-19 blamed for the country’s most recent spike in infections, Johnson added: “It’s absolutely true that this one spreads faster, but now what you’re seeing thanks to the efforts of the British people…you’re going to start seeing the rates start falling down more sharply.”

The British leader and President Biden spoke in late January about a range of issues including COVID-19 response as well as a “need for coordination on shared foreign policy priorities, including China, Iran, and Russia,” according to a White House readout.

Johnson was also asked about the Senate’s acquittal of former President Trump in his second impeachment trial on Saturday. The British leader did not take a position on then acquittal while adding that the events of the past several weeks proves that American democracy “remains strong.”