Vaccine passports and Boris Johnson’s key G7 role – The Yorkshire Post says

THIS is, in many respects, a serendipitous time for Britain – and Boris Johnson – to be heading the G7 group of world-leading economies.
Boris Johnson and Britain head the G7 this year as the world looks to defeat Covid.Boris Johnson and Britain head the G7 this year as the world looks to defeat Covid.
Boris Johnson and Britain head the G7 this year as the world looks to defeat Covid.

It meant that Mr Johnson could cite the success of the UK vaccine programme – and the lessons already learned – when he and other leaders, including President Joe Biden for the first time, held talks yesterday.

This experience will, after all, underpin the PM’s considerations this weekend ahead of Monday’s announcement on the status of the lockdown and whether schools can partially reopen in a tentative easing of restrictions.

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He also knows public confidence is still fragile, despite may families yearning for a return to normality and the pleasures of an annual holiday, and that there’s a growing groundswell of support for so-called vaccine passports despite concerns – when the idea was first floated – about data security and civil liberty implications.

Boris Johnson during a visit to Wales earlier this week.Boris Johnson during a visit to Wales earlier this week.
Boris Johnson during a visit to Wales earlier this week.

And it is the questions being asked by Yorkshire tourism and hospitality businesses – just how can they reopen for business safely and stop the spread of Covid? – that are also integral to Mr Johnson’s year at the G7 helm.

After all, global co-operation will be needed, more than ever, in order to protect the whole world – including the poorest countries without access to vaccines – from Covid.

Yet, if this mercy mission works, the prize is a profound one – a return to the levels of domestic and international travel and tourism that were, frankly, taken for granted until Covid began to stop the world a year ago. That’s why so much depends on Mr Johnson’s G7 leadership being a huge success.

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