Dr Hilary Jones warns Richard Madeley we have ‘too much faith’ in Covid-19 vaccinations amid clash

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Dr Hilary Jones has again clashed with Richard Madely, telling his Good Morning Britain co-star that we’re putting ‘too much faith’ in Covid-19 vaccinations.

The healthcare professional admitted he’s wary about the upcoming ‘Freedom Day’ on July 19, when it’s thought that all Covid-19 restrictions and precautions will be lifted.

‘We’re putting far too much faith in vaccinations,’ Dr Hilary warned, referencing the projection that there will be 50,000 new cases per day at the time of restrictions lifting.

‘Everyone’s saying it’s been a wonderful thing and it has. It has weakened the link between hospitalisations and deaths.’

‘Substantially,’ Richard interjected, with Dr Hilary agreeing.

‘We’d have been in a great position if we’d only been dealing with the Alpha variant and the Kent variant, but actually we’re dealing with the Delta variant, which is much more transmissible,’ the NHS worker said.

‘There are going to be other variants,’ he went on to warn.

Richard asked: ‘How much longer are we going to go on fearing the possibility [of a vaccine-resistant variant]?’

Dr Hilary hit back: ‘We don’t need to fear it, we need to be aware of it and we need to be careful.’

Richard spoke out about the vaccine (Picture: ITV)

‘We need to have the healthy debate,’ Richard asserted following the pair’s disagreement.

The pair’s discussion comes after Richard branded Dr Hilary ‘misleading’ over his warnings.

Dr Hilary suggested that we all need to be taking the rising cases more seriously.

But Richard wasn’t having it.

‘Look, in Australia they have a fraction of the cases we have and half the country’s in lockdown, here we think that banding all restrictions when we have cases going up, 74% in a week and 55% hospitalisions in a week,’ Dr Hilary explained.

Dr Hilary warned that there could be more variants on the way (Picture: ITV)

Richard was quick to cut him off: ‘But we have the vaccine and Australia hasn’t.’

Dr Hilary responded: ‘You’re absolutely right, we do have the vaccine but what people forget is vaccination doesn’t give you 100% protection. 10% of people who have double jabs are still likely to get the virus and are still vulnerable.’

The co-host of the morning news programme said Dr Hilary was ‘misleading’.

More: Coronavirus

On July 19, it is expected that there will be no more compulsory mask wearing or social distancing.

The work from home guidance will be scrapped and large scale events will no longer have a capped capacity.

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.

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