Analysis. All British adults will have been offered at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by June 10, a month and a half ahead of the official Johnson government’s target and well two months ahead of that of the European Commission, according to a study published in the Times, Saturday March 13. Study perhaps a little too optimistic: Wednesday March 17, London conceded that the vaccination of the under 50 years could begin later in April, because of supply problems. Nevertheless: the European setbacks of the Anglo-Swedish vaccine AstraZeneca – of which 11 million Britons have received a dose – raise disbelief in a country little allergic to the culture of risk, where the population has understood that the vaccine saves infinitely more lives than it could cost.
Astonishing British performance that this swift vaccination campaign, while London had lost control of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, marrying unpreparedness with incompetence and resulting in a very sad European record: more than 125,000 deaths linked to the coronavirus on March 17.
The NHS does wonders
Boris Johnson’s character traits played a positive role: fascination with big projects, performative optimism. The Prime Minister and his government have also been able to count on an exceptional pool of researchers, laboratories and visionary advisers. From mid-April 2020, the “vaccine task force”, responsible for building a future portfolio of vaccines, was launched.
At the time, the media barely picked up the information: the country was experiencing a violent first wave and Boris Johnson contracted the virus. An effective vaccine will inevitably come from somewhere, for Patrick Vallance, chief scientific adviser to the government. “We just have to bet on lots of horses at a time, and be sure that we are in the perfect position to access the vaccines when they are finalized”, then explains this former head of research for the British pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
Two national projects are already talking about them: that of the Imperial College and especially that led by Sarah Gilbert and Andrew Pollard at the University of Oxford, who hope for an operational vaccine from autumn 2020. Oxford is joining forces with the Anglo-Swedish giant AstraZeneca on April 30 with the blessing of Downing Street which has already allocated tens of millions of pounds to national anti-Covid vaccine research, and will continue to spend lavishly throughout the year.
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