Vaccine

Wednesday

Ross Clark

Test and Trace was an expensive failure

Before we had vaccines, NHS Test and Trace was supposed to be the breakthrough that would return us to a normal life. After all, testing, tracing and isolating contacts of infected people was credited with keeping Covid infections down in South Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere, so why wouldn’t it work here?  Instead, we had a second wave and the return to normality was reversed. In September, Sage, the government’s scientific advisory committee on emergencies, was dismissive, saying Test and Trace was having only a ‘marginal effect’. A report by the National Audit Office in December, by which point the system had already cost taxpayers £22 billion, was equally scathing. At

Tuesday

Matthew Lynn

Even Guy Verhofstadt has seen through the EU’s vaccine fiasco

It is a rant worthy of Nigel Farage in his pomp. One of the leading figures within the European Parliament has launched a blistering tirade against the Commission’s ineptitude in securing vaccines. The EU is a world leader in making inoculations, he points out. And yet there is a shortage of supply in every country within the Union. The measures taken to fix that so far have been ‘symbolic,’ ‘insufficient’ and sometimes even ‘counterproductive’. Worse, there has been a shocking lack of accountability, with no one held responsible for the failure. The critic? None other than the arch federalist, scourge of Brexiteers, and hero of Lib Dem party conferences, Guy

Monday

Katy Balls

Boris Johnson hints at Covid exit strategy

What will the government’s roadmap out of lockdown look like? That’s a question being asked frequently as ministers get to work on a plan for easing restrictions. Given that Boris Johnson isn’t due to announce the details until next Monday, it’s a moving picture — with new data continuing to inform the proposals. Speculation aside, the Prime Minister spoke in a broadcast interview today over his strategy for easing the lockdown.  Johnson said that he would be pushing for a ‘cautious but irreversible’ approach — in the hope that a cautious approach would mean that a fourth lockdown was avoided. He said that where possible the government would give dates for

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Why are so many health workers turning down the vaccine?

On Saturday the government hit its target of administering a first vaccine dose to 15 million of the highest-risk groups for Covid 19. By now, everyone over the age of 70, all healthcare workers and vulnerable groups should have been offered a vaccine. It is an impressive achievement which stands in contrast to many of the other things that have gone wrong over the past year. But there is a rather large fly sitting in the ointment. While 90 per cent of eligible members of the general public have turned up for their appointments (97 per cent in the over-80s), the same is true of only 80 per cent of

Steerpike Steerpike

Hancock’s vaccine passport confusion

Will they, won’t they? Only yesterday the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was saying vaccine passports were ‘under consideration’ — going directly against what Nadim Zahawi said just days before when he ruled out vaccine passports as discriminatory and un-British.  Raab was clear that the UK was looking at both domestic and foreign passports: that as well as looking at the possibility of their use for flights and international travel, the British government is also investigating whether such a document could be used for vaccinated individuals wanting to go into a restaurant or visit the supermarket.  So what does Matt Hancock have to say on the subject? On the Today programme just now, the Health

Friday

Kate Andrews

France’s vaccine volte face

France has become the first country in the world to recommend a different vaccine regime for those who have recovered from the virus. The country’s public health authority has recommended that people previously infected with Covid-19 only receive one jab, rather than two. The advice is based on preliminary data, including two studies from the United States, that show the combination of antibodies built up from having the virus, plus one jab, creates immunity that ‘is equal to or even exceeds’ having two vaccines. It wasn’t long ago that French ministers were publicly criticising the UK’s strategy It’s too early to definitively say whether France’s strategy will work. For one thing,

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Tory nerves are growing over Boris Johnson’s Covid strategy

When the third lockdown was voted on in the House of Commons last month, there was a smaller Tory rebellion than the previous two votes. A combination of the arrival of an exit strategy through vaccines, the new Kent variant and the sharp increase in hospital admissions meant that many MPs previously critical of lockdown as a tool against coronavirus, supported the measures. However, with Boris Johnson due to set out a roadmap later this month on the path out of lockdown, the mood is now beginning to change. Tensions increased this week when Matt Hancock announced new border measures. Controversially, this included a potential ten year prison sentence for those who lied

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: A royal baby, Boohoo buyouts and France legalises lunch al desko

Home On Sunday 7 February, as the week began, 11,465,210 people in the United Kingdom had received a first vaccination against Covid-19 and 510,057 a second. Those aged 70 or over were invited to book a vaccination online or by telephone if they had not received one. Illegal immigrants were advised to register with a GP without risking deportation. South Africa, possessing a million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, decided to suspend its use after a trial of 2,000 people (42 of whom developed Covid) seemed to indicate that it offered ‘minimal protection’ against mild and moderate cases; no one in the trial was old. Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

The stealthy rise of vaccine passports

Do you remember normality? A busy diary. Holidays, parties, pubs. Who hasn’t looked back and wondered how we can return to that life which now seems so free. Sacrifices have been inevitable. After a year in and out of lockdown, are we ready to make some more? The Covid vaccines promise freedom, or at least some version of it according to government ministers. By the end of next month, if the vaccine rollout continues at its current rate, all over-50s will have been offered their first jab. The Prime Minister has assured us that ‘things will be very different by the spring’. Matt Hancock has promised a ‘happy and free’

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson urges caution on summer holidays

Will Brits be able to enjoy a summer holiday after the pandemic? Just a few months ago, Health Secretary Matt Hancock suggested they would, telling MPs that he had already booked his summer break to Cornwall. But today, Boris Johnson joined in with the rather less cheerful messaging coming out of government that it was ‘just too soon’ to say whether people could book time away, whether in the UK or abroad. The Prime Minister gave a press conference this afternoon which was largely aimed at getting more people to take up the vaccine – but he found himself answering questions about what might happen once sufficient numbers had got

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris Johnson sets out the new normal on vaccines

Despite Keir Starmer’s attempts to coax Boris Johnson into committing to a variety of economic measures, Prime Minister’s Questions brought with it little clarity on what will be in next month’s Budget. However, Johnson was more forthcoming when it came to vaccines.  Vaccine orders go well beyond the number of doses required to vaccinate the entire adult population Following recent comments from ministers and government scientists over the likelihood of a booster shot being required to protect the public against new variants, Johnson said the public would need to ‘get used to the idea of vaccinating and then revaccinating in the autumn, as we come to face these new variants.’ He pointed to

Matthew Lynn Matthew Lynn

Von der Leyen has learnt nothing from the EU’s vaccine fiasco

As non-apology apologies go, it was right up there with the best of them. Speaking to MEPs today, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen accepted that some ‘mistakes had been made’ in the procurement of vaccines against Covid-19.  Apparently the Commission had been a little too late authorising some of the shots, it had been a tad too optimistic about production, and not everything had gone according to plan. But, heck, these things happen, she went on to argue. And perhaps most crucially of all, the alternative would have been far, far worse.  ‘I can’t even imagine if a few big players had rushed to it

Ross Clark Ross Clark

How effective are the Covid vaccines?

Reports have filtered through this morning about Public Health England’s assessment of the efficacy of the two vaccines so far administered to the public. The results have not yet been published, but the efficacy rates quoted in the Sun suggest that the Pfizer vaccine has proved to be between 79 and 84 per cent effective at stopping symptomatic infection after two doses. After one dose – which is all that most people have had so far – efficacy is reported as 65 per cent. Among the over 80s it is very similar, at 64 per cent. No figures are given for the AstraZeneca vaccine but it is suggested that the efficacy

Tuesday

Joanna Rossiter

Hungary’s vaccine strategy risks showing up the EU

You have to admire Hungary’s chutzpah. Not only has it bypassed Brussels to pursue its own vaccine procurement strategy, it is also backing two of the most controversial horses in the race: Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm jab. It has just secured enough Sinopharm doses to vaccinate 250,000 people a month while its Sputnik V deal will mean 1 million Hungarians are vaccinated – a tenth of the population. The Sputnik V vaccine may start being rolled out as soon as next week. Hungary’s strategy may appear reckless but its hand has been somewhat forced by EU policy, which prohibitively states that individual member states may only enter into

Hardeep Singh

India’s vaccine diplomacy

‘Vaccine diplomacy’ is playing an increasingly important role in the geopolitics of the Covid-19 pandemic. Countries like China and India are attempting to bolster their credentials and earn some goodwill, by donating or selling their surplus vaccine supplies to low-income countries, or nations with longer term partnership potential. China has already donated half a million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to its regional ally Pakistan. This followed President Xi’s announcement earlier this year that the development and deployment of a Chinese vaccine will be ‘a global public good.’ Meanwhile China’s regional rival India, which has the world’s largest vaccination programme, is driving forward its ‘Vaccine Maitri’ (Vaccine Friendship) initiative. A

Monday

Steerpike

Watch: EU’s jab at Britain’s vaccine arms-race

The EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, has been in the firing line in recent weeks, over the EU’s failure to procure enough vaccine doses. The Commission’s haphazard programme has left officials scrambling for excuses to explain why the bloc has come up short, with various EU leaders hitting out at AstraZeneca, Britain’s one-dose strategy, and our medicine approvals process. Could those excuses be wearing thin? That might explain why the EU President appeared to come up with a new strategy this weekend for deflecting blame: by accusing Britain of a Cold War mindset. In a video speech to students at Warwick university, von der Leyen explained that she had

Constantin Eckner

Why Germany is eyeing up the Sputnik V vaccine

After the EU’s vaccine distribution disaster, German lawmakers are now taking a closer look at Russia’s Sputnik V jab. If approved by EU regulators, Sputnik V could be the fourth vaccine available in the bloc after the BioNTech-Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. It’s easy to see why Germany could be tempted by the Sputnik V vaccine. The rollout of the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna jabs has been hampered by delivery delays and political blunders. And European regulators have remained wary of AstraZeneca’s vaccine – a scepticism that was solidified by a recent trial showing that the shot may not significantly reduce the risk of mild or moderate disease caused by the

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows roundup: Zahawi ‘confident’ over-50s will get jab by May

Nadhim Zahawi – ‘I’m confident’ all over 50s will get jab by May Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi was sent out to bat for the government this morning, at a time when over 11 million people have received a first dose of an approved Covid vaccine. Zahawi told Sophy Ridge that he was certain that, despite any possible disruption caused by the European Commission’s aborted jab grab, the government was still on course to meet its targets. The first four priority groups are forecast to be vaccinated by mid-February; and groups five-nine are estimated to be offered a jab at some point in the spring:  NZ: I’m confident we’ll meet our

Saturday

Virginie Joron

France is furious at the EU’s vaccine bungle

Ursula von der Leyen has clung to an increasingly implausible narrative this week: that the EU made the ‘right decision’ with its vaccine strategy. It’s the clearest sign yet that Brussels is going into panic mode. The Commission president is reported to have turned down requests to hold a public debate in the European parliament on the vaccine roll-out. Von der Leyen decided to only answer questions behind from a select group of MEPs behind closed doors. Finally, left without much choice the Commission president seems to have grudgingly accepted to appear before the European Parliament on Wednesday. The Commission feels increasingly cornered, and rightly so, for the EU’s vaccine struggle

Friday

Katy Balls

Do May elections hint at faster lockdown easing?

The news that the local elections will go ahead as planned on 6 May has increased optimism in the Conservative parliamentary party about the roadmap out of lockdown. Despite rumours that the vote could be postponed on the grounds that Covid restrictions would prevent them from effectively campaigning, UK Constitution Minister Chloe Smith has said it will go ahead on the grounds that ‘democracy should not be cancelled because of Covid’.  But MPs aren’t just pleased because the vote is on. Several are taking it as a sign that the lockdown will be eased sooner rather than later. The Cabinet Office announcement said they were able to commit ‘with confidence’ to the elections going ahead