The warped thinking at the heart of the EU’s vaccine programme

SIR – Last week Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, threatened to block exports of Covid vaccines to Britain, apparently on the grounds that our vaccination programme has outperformed that of the EU.

Is this the equivalent to nobbling a prize-winning horse to allow an also-ran to look better? There has been an outbreak of hubris in the EU. Jonathan Mann

Gunnislake, Cornwall

SIR – A number of European nations suspended their use of the AstraZeneca vaccine (since declared safe by the European health regulator), citing the precautionary principle.

Should the EU not admit that it has put its subjects’ lives at risk for the sake of politics? It would be interesting to know whether people think that is a price worth paying.

Andrew Willmott

Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire

SIR – Not that I need persuading, but the vaccine nonsense in Europe makes me more certain than ever that voting to leave the EU was the best thing we’ve done.

Clive Green

Bristol

SIR – Your Leading Article (March 14) says “the UK Vaccine Taskforce showed what can be done when the state abandons its institutional loathing of the private sector”.

It would be fairer to say that the success of the vaccine rollout has been a result of the partnership between the Government, industry and academia.

Kate Bingham, its chair, chosen for her business skills in drug discovery, has taken no salary. The Government wisely put its money where its mouth was by providing £33.6 million to accelerate the development of the vaccines, and £19.7 million for blood testing facilities at Public Health England’s Porton Down labs.

AstraZenica is to be applauded for its promise to supply the vaccine at cost, meaning that the profit motive has not driven vaccine development and deployment. The delivery has been carried out by a very public body, the NHS, with an astonishing army of one million volunteers adding a crucial element of civic engagement.

In short, we have seen the benefits of authentic conservative values: pragmatism, civil society and, yes, authority, as the Government is now deferring to “data not dates”.

Paul Thomson

Knutsford, Cheshire

SIR – Visiting a vaccination centre on Wednesday, it struck me that we are missing an opportunity to show our appreciation for the successful rollout.

It should be possible to make a voluntary contribution to this amazing programme. Had every recipient of the vaccine so far dropped £1 into a bucket, we would now have £25 million to give back to the NHS. Surely this would be more useful than clapping.

Myra Robinson