We need to see a vaccine timetable

The Prime Minister pointed out to Andrew Marr on the BBC yesterday that the last time he appeared on his programme in October he had warned that there were some “bumpy times ahead”. But he had also predicted the worst would be over by Easter and he was sticking to that. However, judging by Boris Johnson’s comments there are a few months more of misery to come before we get there, if we ever do. The tier restrictions are not suppressing the virus and another national lockdown looms. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has called for one to be imposed today, doubtless sensing the way the wind is blowing.

With a vaccine now available the arguments against a lockdown, despite its considerable collateral damage, are harder to make. But that assumes that it is distributed effectively and speedily. Before submitting to another nationwide shutdown the country must be given a clear timetable for the vaccine roll-out, regular updates on its distribution and be assured that all bureaucratic barriers are being dismantled.

The big challenge now is to produce enough of it and get it into the arms of those who need it most as swiftly as possible. To meet the Prime Minister’s forecast of a return to something approaching normality by the spring will require about two million inoculations a week using both the Oxford and Pfizer vaccines in two doses separated by 12 weeks. From today, just over 500,000 doses of the Oxford vaccine are to be made available together with an unknown amount of the Pfizer jab.

While these are early days, it is apparent that this is nowhere near enough. We are also unsure precisely how the production and distribution of the vaccines are to be ramped up to meet the Prime Minister’s target. Indeed, Mr Johnson said he was not in a position to “elaborate on the figures” but could promise “tens of millions over the next three months”.

In the entire crisis nothing is more important than this. Mr Johnson was right to call the red tape preventing retired doctors from joining the fight “absurd and pointless”. But it needs to be removed forthwith and not subject to a protracted Whitehall review. If there is to be another lockdown it needs to be accompanied by the sort of urgency seen in wartime, with round-the-clock vaccine production and 24-hour clinical hubs. As the Prime Minister’s hero Winston Churchill used to put it: Action This Day.