Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Dr Hilary Jones has warned that "everybody will get omicron" in the UK.
The general practitioner and presenter was discussing covid isolation rules with GMB host Susanna Reid when he made the comment.
He told her that it was crucial that the curve be flattened as they spoke about cutting self-isolation periods.
READ MORE - ScotRail propose closure of ticket offices and reduced opening hours
The doctor said that reducing isolation periods in order to get more NHS and education staff back to work was not practical in the long term as it would lead to more infections.
Boris Johnson is currently looking at cutting the isolation period to five days, but Dr Hilary warned this would be a mistake.
As reported by Hull Live, he said: "Well if you shorten the period of self-isolation you'll certainly get more people back to work that week. Two weeks later, you'll have less.
"It's as simple as that because you will have 30 per cent of people still infectious after five days... going back to work, passing on the virus to their work colleagues.
"After seven days, it's 16 per cent so a significant difference."
He continued: "You can't keep cutting self-isolation just because it's convenient. There's a reason for it.
"Scientists are saying keep it at seven days. The economists are saying let's shorten it or get rid of it all together."
Dr Hilary also stressed that omicron was causing problems in the NHS and while it is milder, are more people who are seriously ill.
And he spoke out against herd immunity, said we were still flattening out the curve and trying to allow the NHS to cope.
He added: "You can't say just because it's milder, let's forget everything we are doing, and let it spread around the community so we've got herd immunity. We're still flattening the curve., trying to allow the NHS to cope.. We want less people infected all at once.
"Ultimately, probably everybody will get omicron, vaccinated or not.
"But people will have it less severely if they are vaccinated with all three jabs and we'll have less people in hospital and the NHS will be able to cope."
