How much credit does the NHS deserve for the Covid vaccine rollout?

Who should we thank for our Covid vaccines? For many, the answer is straightforward: the National Health Service. 

‘Thank you NHS’, says a profile sticker shared by thousands of Brits on Facebook. But while Britain’s undoubtedly successful vaccine programme owes a great deal to the efforts of NHS staff, is it right to thank the NHS itself? Left to its own devices, would the NHS have delivered in quite the same way? And how much should we credit Boris’s vaccine task force – rather than the health service – for the vaccine rollout?

I am a critic of the NHS – but not for the sake of it. I criticise it when it delivers worse outcomes than comparable systems, which it often does. But where it does as well as other systems, or better, I am happy to acknowledge that, and this is one of those occasions. So, credit where it is due. The