British Prime Minister Johnson railed against vaccination opponents

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pulls his hair while visiting a vaccination center in Northampton

Photo: PETER CZIBORRA / REUTERS

In the UK, almost 70 percent of the population has been vaccinated at least twice.

Far too little in the opinion of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson - which is why he has now dealt verbally against the vaccine opponents in the kingdom.

"I want to say to the anti-vaccine community, the people who spread this hocus-pocus on social media, you are completely wrong," said Johnson.

These people would "tell utter nonsense about vaccination."

Great Britain is one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus in Europe.

According to official figures, almost 150,000 people have died since the pandemic began.

In the summer, Johnson had promised a "Freedom Day" and greatly relaxed many corona measures.

After a brief spike in infections, it looked like the UK was leaving the pandemic behind.

But since the appearance of the Omikron variant at the end of November, the number of infections has increased massively again.

It was a "tragedy" that the national health system was under so much pressure that "our doctors and nurses had so many difficulties," said Johnson.

In this situation, there is no need for people to spread untruths about the protective corona vaccination.

However, the prime minister does not want to oblige anyone to vaccinate.

He underlined that, unlike other European countries, Great Britain continues to rely exclusively on voluntary vaccination: "We have a voluntary approach in this country and we will keep it".

In some countries there is now a general or specific compulsory vaccination: It was only on Wednesday that Italy introduced compulsory vaccination for over 50-year-olds.

Austria plans to introduce a general compulsory vaccination.

In Germany, an area-specific mandatory vaccination for all employees in clinics, old people's and nursing homes has been decided - the Bundestag wants to discuss mandatory vaccination for all in February.

mrc / AFP