Let’s bust some vaccine myths

Today is a great day for all of us. The licensing of the ChAdOx vaccine will mean a step change in vaccine deployment and is one of the most significant developments of the year. As is widely known, the vaccine developed is cheap, easy to store and we have enough doses to meaningfully start talking about widespread programmes of vaccination. Now is a good time to address a slow motion and avoidable car crash. Vaccines are not a political issue – don’t let anybody persuade you otherwise. You can see this happening and it affects both our interpretation of vaccine development and, more importantly, the likelihood of having one. The development of vaccines themselves can be appropriated by all political camps. The left point to governmental infrastructure, funding and people; the right to the crucial role of a private sector momentarily freed of red tape and able to dramatically speed and scale up development and deployment. The wishy-washy middle might tentatively suggest both are true.