One Jab is Not Enough to Save a Nation

Dale Roberts, who jointly organises the covid support group for Knaphill, St John's and Brookwood, calls for more than a rapid vaccine rollout to support a robust recovery.

The government has begun to plan how we can safely leave this third national lockdown with the next review in the middle of February and a plan of action to follow shortly. Like many I suspect, I have found this lockdown far more difficult. Also, like many, I do not want to see the need for any more which will require the government to do more than continue at pace with vaccinations.

The speed of the vaccine rollout has been impressive. The UK has performed much better than other advanced economies partly because it has, at last, made better use of NHS structures and leveraged an extensive national vaccination network including 1,200 GP lead and community pharmacy vaccination hubs. At the time of writing the number of people who had received, at least, their first dose was around 6 million. The vaccine rollout is proving to be what the FT last week called a 'rare government pandemic success'.

This is all cause for optimism, the end may be in sight. However, many in the scientific community are cautioning the government to not solely focus on vaccines. One example was published in the British Medical Journal last week by Christina Pagel, Director of the Clinical Operational Research Unit at UCL. According to Pagel, there are still risks, including vaccine hesitancy and the likelihood of more transmissible variants all of which means that normality is dependent not on the success of a single activity but a combination of four.

Firstly, vaccinations should absolutely continue at pace. Secondly, restrictions to prevent community transmission should not be relaxed until casenumbers are similar to levels we saw in the Summer of 2020. Thirdly, and importantly, we need functioning contract tracing to minimise the risk of further lockdowns. Quicker, easier tests would also be important. Fourthly we need better border controls and testing. In other words, the government must succeed this year on two things it objectively failed at last year. The failings of Serco track and trace are well documented and our PM, only recently announced restrictions on flying into the country a full 371 days after the World Health Organisation recommended, we should have done.

The pace of our vaccinations is impressive and encouraging. It would be churlish to be anything other than celebratory about our progress here. However, it's not enough for a nation which has 0.8% of the world's population but 5% of the world's Covid deaths. Now, more than ever, we can't rely on a single, simplistic, headline-grabbing solution. We need a clear, co-ordinated and comprehensive plan and flawless execution. Our government, in spite of their record to date, need to get this absolutely right. To quote Ian Dunt, author of the excellent How to be a liberal 'Please, please don't screw this one up'. Although that's not a word-for-word quote.