Nadhim Zahawi
(Picture: Sky News)Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has said he could have ended up in “big trouble” if he had not been vaccinated against Covid-19.
Speaking shortly after his recovery from coronavirus on Sky News Thursday morning, Mr Zahawi urged viewers to get their jabs after revealing the disease had really affected his breathing.
The former Vaccines Minister said doctors had told him that he would have been hospitalised if he hadn’t had the jab.
He said: “By day four or five it got into my chest and started really affecting my breathing.”
Mr Zahawi added that his temperature reached 39.5C and his doctor had suggested he might have to be put on steroids.
Doctors told him, "If you hadn’t had the vaccine and the booster, I guarantee you you would be in hospital and probably intubated."
He urged viewers to take up the “evergreen” offer of a Covid vaccine from the NHS.
“This thing is not like a cold,” he said.
“Certainly I would have been in big trouble, according to my doctor.”
He also defended the Government’s decision to drop the mask requirements for pupils in the classroom saying they “inhibit learning”.
"We are seeing, actually, attendance begin to tick upwards,” he said.
“I think the balance... because we know that masks in the classroom does inhibit learning - much harder to communicate, much more difficult for children to learn.
“I think now we are at the stage where we’re probably going to be one of the first major economies in the world to transition this virus from pandemic to endemic, I think it’s right that we remove masks in the classroom as soon as we could."
He reiterated the Government’s commitment to drop many of the remaining legal Covid restrictions in England later this month if the data continues to "move in the right direction".
Boris Johnson announced on Wednesday that he will set out plans for “living with Covid” when Parliament returns from recess on February 21.
February 24 has been touted as the date when restrictions could be lifted.
This would include the legal requirement to self-isolate after testing positive for Covid.
