Ryanair chief: Vaccines will remove the need for 'crazy' Covid-19 PCR tests for travel
2 June 2021, 18:55
Ryanair chief: Vaccines will remove need for 'crazy' PCR tests for travel
Covid-19 vaccines will remove the need for "crazy" PCR tests for travel, Ryanair's Chief Executive has told LBC.
Michael O'Leary gave LBC his perspective after Boris Johnson has today insisted there is "nothing in the data" to suggest the planned lifting of Covid restrictions on June 21 will not go ahead.
Mr O'Leary told LBC: "I don't think a testing system is where the future lies. We want to see a significant relaxation of travel restrictions, particularly for UK citizens on a day like today when 75% of UK adults have now received their first vaccine dose.
"Vaccines will remove the need for testing [and] remove the need for these crazy PCR tests."
He also told LBC: "We should allow British families to book their holidays to the beaches of Europe through June, July and August, safe in the knowledge that the risk of contacting Covid or spreading Covid is minimal at this point in time."
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He also claimed that a "variant scariant narrative" has generally "been put forward by the medical and scientific community".
Mr O'Leary also said: "The experts in science tell us that the vaccines are effective against the Indian variant. So why are we worried about the Indian variant? The vaccines are effective."
He added: "[The Indian variant's] transmissibility is a distraction. Transmissibility is not the issue.
"I mean remember we closed down our economies here not to prevent the spread of Covid, but to prevent the hospitals and the NHS being overwhelmed.
'Nothing in the data' to suggest delay to June 21 lifting of lockdown
"We've now achieved that thanks to the success of the vaccine rollout. There will always be variants of these viruses.
"There will be new variants. But...[the] vaccines are effective.
"And if the vaccines are effective, we should really focus on the prize which is getting our life back to normal [and] going on holidays this summer.
"And [we should] stop worrying about variant scariants...where the vaccines are effective against them."
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