Matthew Lynn Matthew Lynn

Matt Hancock is right: we are in a vaccine race with France

(Getty images)

There are plenty of different ways in which Matt Hancock, the health secretary, can be criticised for his handling of the Covid-19 crisis. Track and trace didn’t work, lockdowns were sporadic and probably too late, and the messaging wobbled all over the place. But comparing the British vaccination drive to France and the rest of the EU? That was completely right.

When Hancock remarked on Sky News yesterday that the UK had vaccinated more people in just three days than France had managed in total, his critics on social media went into a predictable meltdown. It’s not a competition or a race lectured the finger-waggers. We have only done one dose. And if there is a problem with the roll-outs of the shot across Europe, it is the fault of AstraZeneca and Pfizer and the rest of the greedy drugs industry.

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