Boris Johnson attacks anti-vaccine campaigners

Anti-vaccine campaigners who spread “mumbo jumbo” and “nonsense” on social media are completely wrong, British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said on Thursday.

Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to a vaccination centre in Northampton, he said a “voluntary approach” to vaccination will remain, amid other countries’ “coercion.”

He said: “I want to say to the anti-vax campaigners, the people who are putting this mumbo jumbo on social media: they are completely wrong.

“You haven’t heard me say that before, because I think it’s important we have a voluntary approach in this country and we’re going to keep a voluntary approach.”

Johnson said other European countries were going for “coercion,” and added: “What a tragedy that we’ve got all this pressure on the National Health Service, all the difficulties that our doctors and nurses are experiencing, and we’ve got people out there spouting complete nonsense about vaccination.

“They are totally wrong, and I think it’s time that I, the government, call them out on what they’re doing.

“It’s absolutely wrong, it’s totally counter-productive, and the stuff they’re putting out on social media is complete mumbo jumbo.”

Britain’s vaccine rollout had successfully reached tens of millions of people, with a ramping up of the booster programme in recent weeks as Omicron cases surged.

However, an estimated 4.5 million people aged 18 and over in the UK have not had a first dose, more than 6 million people are not double jabbed, and almost 9 million eligible people have not had a booster.