![]() ![]() Shortages in the supply of vials for routine blood tests add to the sense of an NHS which is once more on the brink. ![]() In other words, the destruction of another outbreak is beginning to look more likely than not.Ĭombine this with a bad flu season, which is equally possible after the hiatus in infections caused by the social distancing of the past year and a half, and all the ingredients are there for a renewed public health crisis. On the ground experience in Israel, which has been at the forefront of vaccine rollout, and a UK study headed by Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, have concluded that vaccine potency against infection is short lived. Vaccines, it seems, may not be the salvation once assumed. It is admittedly still too early to be certain one way or the other, but worryingly we now have clear evidence that the effectiveness of vaccines wears off markedly after six months. Obviously we must all hope for the best, but hope is not a strategy ministers also need to prepare for the worst, and that means a fully thought through plan of action for avoiding the default option of renewed lockdown this winter – with all its attendant damage to education, the economy, the public finances, and general wellbeing. Not to put too fine a point on it, the war on Covid is once again looking like an on-the-hoof, chaotic mess. For as things stand, there is very little sign of planning for what happens if the vaccines aren’t enough. Fingers crossed, the current surge in Covid infections, hospitalisations and deaths won’t be nearly as bad as previous waves.
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