Isle of Wight Festival boss, John Giddings, last night tweeted the Prime Minister with a suggestion that could help with the Coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine rollout, and in turn, support the thousands of people who work in the events industry.
John makes the point that there are empty theatres, clubs and arenas, as well as the skilled people capable of setting up and running events, around the country who could be utilised to help with the massive Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Massive rollout programme
Around 47.5m people in the UK will eventually be eligible for the Covid-19 vaccination (it’s still not known whether children will have the vaccine), taking the rollout plans to a scale well beyond the annual flu jab programme.
At the moment the vaccinations are being undertaken by the GP service.
Supporting those who have lost work
The move could benefit people like Ben Wilbee, who has spent the last 20 years building up his event business, but after the events sector collapsed last year, he had to consider selling all his equipment just to get through the winter.
What does MP think?
News OnTheWight has written to Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Bob Seely, to ask whether he would actively support the suggestion made by John Giddings.
We’ll update here once we hear back.
Wave of support
John’s tweet elicited a wave of support for the idea, with many acknowledging how those in the sector are well experienced at quickly setting up infrastructure to handle large scale operations. Click into the tweet to see the many supportive replies.
