Despite vaccines slowing the spread of coronavirus, we cannot get complacent

Editorial: The rollout has been a success but the government has a responsibility to help Covid-positive carriers who are ignoring self-isolation due to patchy financial support

We cannot let our guard down after good vaccine news (Getty/iStock)

Less than two months after Margaret Keenan, 91, became the first person in Britain to be vaccinated against coronavirus, some 10 million people have joined her in that happy band. It is a tribute to international scientific collaboration and the expertise of the NHS and the armed forces in making sure it reaches the right people at the right time. 

It would be churlish not to acknowledge the efforts of the vaccines task force and the government minister responsible for the programme, Nadhim Zahawi. There have been some grievous failures in the official response to the pandemic, errors of judgement that have left Britain with the worst proportionate Covid-19 death toll in Europe; but credit where it is due.

Indeed, ministers and the nation were treated to two pieces of good news after the sad passing of national hero Captain Sir Tom Moore. The vaccination programme is not only on target, but the AstraZeneca vaccine appears to slow the overall spread of the coronavirus. So, while some of the new variants are more infective than the original virus, the vaccine is able to counter this, at least to some extent. With the vaccine reaching more people, the R rate of transmission will be lower than it otherwise would be, even more lives will be saved, and the economy can reopen sooner.