How quickly could we vaccinate the entire country?

A ferry tale

Gerry Marsden, who died aged 78, was credited with making the ferry across the River Mersey world-famous. But it has another claim to fame: as possibly the oldest continuously operated ferry service in the world. The earliest record of a regular ferry was in 1150, when monks at the then newly built Benedictine Priory in Birkenhead set up a ferry service. It was not, however, reliable; bad weather frequently caused delays, so that in 1317 a licence was granted to build lodging houses for people waiting to cross the river. Those who didn’t want to wait, or wanted to avoid the fare, could try their luck wading across: until the river was made navigable for large boats the Mersey was fordable at low tide.

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Ross Clark

Britain is living beyond its means

How quickly could we vaccinate the population if adequate supplies of vaccines were available?

— Disregarding specially set-up vaccination centres, there are 6,993 GP surgeries in England (according to an analysis of NHS digital data in 2019).
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