not too far from reaching the sort of levels of vaccination that would help us contain the virus, and i think that people are not saying that we should abandon the zist june date altogether, but just to delay it by a few weeks, whilst we gather more intelligence, and we can look at the trajectory in a clearer way. and if you look at the costs and benefits of getting it wrong, i think that it is heavily in the favour of delay. so, i think that that is the key thing. yes, you re right, we will learn to live with it, but this date that was set did not take into account the fact that we would have a new variant on the horizon, with properties that allow it to evade antibodies, to some extent, and a virus which is more transmissible. so, nick, if we think back to the start of the pandemic and that phrase following the science, which we heard from the government so much, i suppose the question from scientists like professor gupta and those who agree, is the government going to listen to them
identified in india could delay the next phase of re opening. ministers want everyone over 50 to have had both doses before the end ofjune. england s largest vaccination centre has opened at twickenham rugby stadium. up to 1,500 jabs will be available for people who haven t yet received their first vaccine. the government has said it will wait untiljune 1ath to decide whether social distancing restrictions can be lifted a week later. some scientists have warned against any further easing of coronavirus measures. let s speak to our political correspondent nick eardley. caution, from some scientists there saying it doesn t make sense, as far as they are concerned, according to the data to go onjune 21st and they are talking about everyone waiting for a few more weeks yes. are talking about everyone waiting for a few more weeks for a few more weeks yes, three weeks today for a few more weeks yes, three weeks today is for a few more weeks yes, three weeks today is supposed - for a few
weeks today is supposed on i for a few more weeks yes, three weeks today is supposed on to i for a few more weeks yes, three weeks today is supposed on to a | weeks today is supposed on to a really big moment, where all the legal restrictions that have been in place, in england, are lifted, where some of the venues like nightclubs, are able to re open, where potentially you get full crowds back in football stadiums as part of the european championships. there is nervousness about that. the indian variant mean people are scratching their heads, thinking can it still go ahead, does it need to be delayed? maybe it is only for shall partial. the government doesn t want to engage with that until it has seen the data, increasingly we are seeing scientists raise concerns about the full easing, the complete removal of legal restrictions happening on 21stjune. this morning on the today programme we heard from someone from one of the bodies that advises the uk government. the problem is that
until we see the impact of the easements we have just made. 0ur correspondent matt graveling is at twickenham in south west london for us this morning. at what is now england s largest mass vaccination centre. welcome to twickenham. probably not as you have seen it before. this stadium holds about 82,000 people. today they are hoping to vaccinate 15,000 people from the local area around hounslow and the eight surrounding london boroughs. the reason for this, there has been a worrying increase in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus, especially the indian variant. you can see behind me, some of the 250 volunteers that will be helping that happen today as we turn that stadium into one of england s biggest vaccination centres. to tell you why this is important, this is kelly o neill, health director for hounslow.
i ve said all along, as has matt hancock and the prime minister, we can t rule anything out, because we know that this has been a difficult pandemic, a dynamic situation. we have to make thatjudgment a couple of weeks before. it will only be by then we will see the full impact of the latest easements we made on 17th may. so i know everybody wants to know what s going to happen, but we can t actually make that judgment until we see the impacts of the easements we ve just made. there is a race between the new variant and the spread of virus and the vaccine roll out. we are hearing ministers talk all the time about getting the second dose of the vaccine. that is because the science suggests that the protection you get, even from this new variant after two doses is much higher than it is from one dose, it is about a third with one dose, it is double if not more if you have both, so you will hear a lot of messaging in the next couple of weeks about exactly