We have a vaccine. In fact, we have three — and more are on the way. While we still need to scrutinise the full data from the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca trials, the initial reports are stunning: vaccines that in some cases exceed 90 per cent effectiveness, and might be ready within weeks.
Previous surveys showed a big appetite for the vaccine, but more recent ones are concerning. According to YouGov, only 67 per cent of British people say they’d be ‘likely’ to get the Pfizer virus, with 21 per cent saying they’d be ‘fairly’ or ‘very’ unlikely to. Other polls also find that scepticism towards the vaccine is increasing.
By my amateurish, back-of-a-cigarette-packet calculations, 67 per cent is just about what we’d need for herd immunity. And that’s assuming relatively even transmission of the virus, which isn’t realistic given the clustered nature of the infections. So it would be rather helpful if we could get that 67 per cent figure quite a lot higher.
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