Why is Boris talking down Britain’s vaccine success again?

A few months ago, the Prime Minister was describing the jabs as the ‘scientific cavalry’ that was on its way to save us from our Covid – and lockdown – woes. But now the cavalry has arrived in the form of a vaccine rollout of unqualified success, the rhetoric has changed. The vaccine is no longer enough, according to Boris. Today we’ve seen another worrying shift in the PM’s words.

In an interview with the BBC, Johnson broke the link between the UK’s ability to reopen and its vaccination programme success:

The reductions in these numbers, in hospitalisations and in deaths and in infections, has not been achieved by the vaccination programme…it’s the lockdown that has been overwhelming important in delivering this improvement in the pandemic and in the figures we’re seeing. Yes, of course, the vaccination programme has helped. But the bulk of the work in reducing the disease has been done by the lockdown.

Is Johnson right to give so much of the credit to lockdown? Keeping everyone inside for months has certainly worked to suppress the virus.