“I’ll take it with you Piers. I think you have to show leadership in these things.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he is willing to take the new Covid-19 vaccine live on television, alongside Piers Morgan.
It was announced that the UK regulator had approved the Pfizer/BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday morning.
After Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan vowed that he would take the vaccine on live television, Matt Hancock has said that he will do the same.
“We would happily take it this if it helped, get the message over. I would take it live on air,” Morgan told Matt Hancock on Wednesday’s GMB. “I just feel like it’s really important if we are going to get through this that enough people take it.”
“I’ll take it with you Piers. I think you have to show leadership in these things,” Hancock then suggested.
“I’m serious, I’ll come to where you are, any time next week, if we can do this and let’s do it together live on air,” replied Morgan. “It would be powerful. It would send the right message, If you take it, I take it, Susanna takes it, Dr Hilary takes it. I think it will have an impact.”
Matt Hancock did clarify though that he did not want to take the vaccine away from anyone who needed it ahead of them.
“We would have to get that approved because of course there is a prioritisation according to clinical need and thankfully as a healthy middle-aged man you are not at the top of the prioritisation but if we can get it approved… I’m up for doing that. ”
‘The vaccine wouldn’t be approved if it wasn’t clinically safe.’
Health Secretary Matt Hancock explains how the UK regulator has made ‘rigorous’ safety check to allow the UK to become the first country in the world to approve the vaccine. @Piersmorgan | @susannareid100 pic.twitter.com/qtq5AmIFat
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) December 2, 2020
Hancock also assured that the public that the vaccine was safe.
“The vaccine wouldn’t be approved by the regulator if it wasn’t clinically safe,” explained Hancock.
“But also, what I would say is don’t listen to me, listen to the clinicians, listen to the experts, people like Jonathan Van Tam, JVT as he’s become known. He is an expert in these things. He’s said he’s called his mum and said, ‘Mum if you get the call from the NHS make sure you get there and get vaccinated.'”
