The Big Retreat is great news — except of course, for all the healthworkers who've already quit, or been forced to take an injection they didn't want, or who have suffered for months with the stress of not knowing if they would be sacked. It's all been so cruel and will leave a wake …a loss of trust that will last for years.

Covid passports programs are also ending in  Ireland, Bolivia, the Czech Republic, and Denmark and now Switzerland, Saskatchewan and Alberta Canada are promising that vaccine passports will end this month.

Tell the world about them: it's fuel for protesters and a cold shower for politicians. Newspapers probably won't headline the pattern of freedom that is starting to spread. There will be people in the world who will be wondering right now if they should hold-the-line.

Politicians will feel isolated if other countries are abandoning their "health passes".

Health secretary Sajid Javid announces U-turn that will prevent exodus of thousands of health workers

The move came three days before the 3 February deadline that unvaccinated NHS workers who had face-to-face contact with patients had been given to have their first dose or be dismissed.

Figures published last week by NHS England show that 127,515 NHS and domiciliary care staff working in registered settings had not had a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as of 23 January.

Javid also plans to remove immunisation as a condition of working in care homes, an approach that has already led to the loss of about 40,000 staff in that sector.

He told MPs: "While vaccination remains our very best line of defence, I believe it is no longer proportionate to require vaccination as a condition of deployment by statute.

NHS organisations said that an estimated 60,000 staff would have been dismissed if Javid had not relented.