Professor Jonathan Van-Tam has moved to quash rumours claiming the coronavirus vaccines can cause infertility.

England’s chief medical officer appeared alongside host Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on Wednesday morning’s instalment of Good Morning Britain.

Susanna Reid was eager to ask for Van-Tam’s thoughts on rumours leading to mistrust concerning the vaccine rollout.

Prof Van-Tam branded rumours, particularly surrounding infertility, as “nonsense” in a characteristic straightforward response.

He said: “You make a wider point about ‘I’m thinking of having a family in the next year or so, should I defer the vaccine?’ and all this nonsense that is out there too about fertility.

“So no. If you’re in a risk condition and you’re called, my advice would be to get on and take the vaccine.”

“There is just no evidence at all that there are any issues relating to planning a family or fertility.

Van-Tam also provided clarity on the potential dangers of the vaccine for pregnant women.

Official NHS advice is that there’s no evidence the COVID-19 vaccine is unsafe if you’re pregnant, however they say that there needs to be more evidence before they can make a decision on whether pregnant women are routinely offered the vaccine.

Professor Van-Tam said: “When we say ‘for the time being’ we advise the vaccine in pregnant women who are really at very severe risk of Covid 19.

“We are not saying that we believe it is unsafe in the wider population of pregnant women but we don’t yet have that extensive data.”

Van-Tam urged women who are pregnant or have a serious underlying health condition to seek medical advice warning “you might die”.

He added: “But we will have in time and right now if you are pregnant and you have very significant health conditions - you might die of Covid so for goodness sake have that conversation with your doctor about whether it’s the right thing for you to do, but I wouldn’t have any hesitation in having that discussion personally with a pregnant woman who was at very high risk.”

Piers Morgan questions JVT one what people refusing to take the vaccine could mean for bringing and end to the pandemic.

He said: “What do we do about those people who simply don’t want to have it and in particular, given your background, what do you feel about people who work in the NHS or in care homes who are refusing to have the vaccine?”

JVT shared his thoughts on supposed mistrust in the vaccine and revealed that actually “we are constantly surprised that people are very accepting and ‘get it’”.

He said: “What I think I’d do is I’d chop that up again into people who have accepted it, people who just say ‘I am never having a vaccine in my life’.

“I wish they didn’t have that view but that is their view and there are a lot of people in the middle who are more likely to be in a position of ‘well, I’m just going to wait and see a bit longer.’

“But actually, the data doesn’t show that. The data shows well over 90 per cent in the over 80s, well over 90 per cent in the 75-79s, well over 90 per cent in the 70-74.

“As we come down the age groups we are constantly surprised that people are very accepting and ‘get it’.

“One thing this vaccine does according to the data is it breaks the link between you getting this and you ending up in hospital.”