Modi’s jabs betrayal

IT’S an appalling breach of trust. India was given licence to produce the oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on condition that a certain quantity would be exported to Britain. It is now reneging on the deal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is blocking the shipment of four million doses because a second wave is surging through his own country. As a consequence, the rollout here will be significantly slowed down.

True, it’s not quite as bad as the conduct of our ‘friends’ in Europe, who have threatened to suspend AstraZeneca’s patent rights and seize its factories. But it is still shocking ingratitude.

It also shows how the Covid vaccine has become the world’s most valuable commodity, with national leaders seemingly prepared to scramble over each other and break rules to get hold of it.

Mercifully, Britain has been able to rise above this unseemly fray. Thanks to Boris Johnson’s foresight and the triumph of the vaccination programme, we lead the world in the Covid fight. Contrast that with the dithering of Europe’s political elites.

Having failed to secure supplies early enough they are now seeking scapegoats for their own incompetence. Their ludicrous flip-flopping over the safety of the oxford vaccine has scared many people off having it and almost certainly cost lives.

The European Medicines Agency finally declared the jab ‘safe and effective’ yesterday but the damage had been done.

So how badly does the Indian export ban affect Britain? UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s ‘nothing to see here’ performance on wednesday was hardly convincing. Ministers must be scrupulously honest about setbacks – however temporary – as well as trumpeting good news. Any suspicion they are not coming clean and the overwhelming public confidence they currently enjoy could quickly melt away.