LIVE: Boris Johnson Holds News Conference on Omicron Variant in the U.K.

In This Story: Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson has been Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since 2019.

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In This Story: Chris Whitty

Christopher John MacRae Whitty CB FRCP FFPH FMedSci is an English physician and epidemiologist who is Chief Medical Officer for England, Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care and Head of the National Institute for Health Research in the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

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In This Story: Lockdown

During the 2020 Covid-19 epidemic, lockdown has come to mean the practice of attempting to control transmission of the virus by means of restricting people’s movement and activities on a broad scale, usually on a national or state-wide basis.

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In This Story: NHS

The National Health Service is the publicly funded healthcare system in England, and one of the four National Health Service systems in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest single-payer healthcare system in the world after the Brazilian Sistema Único de Saúde.

The NHS was founded on 5th July 1948. Current annual budget: £134 billion (2019).

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In This Story: Omicron

The Omicron variant of Covid-19 (also known as B.1.1.529) has been declared a Variant of Concern.

The Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) is an independent group of experts that periodically monitors and evaluates the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and assesses if specific mutations and combinations of mutations alter the behaviour of the virus. The TAG-VE was convened on 26 November 2021 to assess the SARS-CoV-2 variant: B.1.1.529 – which is known as Omicron – the group declared the variant a Variant of Concern.

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In This Story: Vaccine

A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins.

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In This Story: Vaccine Passports

The concept of vaccine passports was established following the development of vaccinations for Covid-19, in several jurisdictions. While the schemes differ in precise implementations across the globe, those which do operate focus on identifying vaccinated individuals in order to allow them fewer restrictions, for example travel or access to enclosed spaces.

These schemes are somewhat controversial, as a minority view them as restricting freedoms; or an expression of “nanny state” or big state interference in ordinary lives. Others, those who are against vaccination, feel they are too forceful a pressure upon people to become vaccinated.

Where vaccine passports come up in news content featured in The Global Herald, that content is listed below, with the most recently posted item, listed nearest the top.

5 Recent Items: Vaccine Passports