Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser has warned that the demonisation of Covid-19 jabs could spill over into childhood immunisation programmes and lead to outbreaks of disease.

Dr Anthony Fauci told the Financial Times that political divisions in public health was preventing a “l(fā)aser-beam focus” on the common enemy — coronavirus. Some US states were not promoting Covid vaccination, while Congress was blocking billions of dollars of funding, both of which were holding back the national response to the pandemic, he said.

“I’m concerned that the acceleration of an anti-vaxxer attitude in certain segments of the population?.?.?.?might spill over into that kind of a negative attitude towards childhood vaccinations, which would be very tragic,” said Fauci.