Vaccine priority

Asked about the decision to continue vaccinations based on age and vulnerability, rather than occupation, Matt Hancock told yesterday’s No10 press conference that it was the Government’s “moral” duty to follow the scientific advice that this is the best way to save lives.

Unions, particularly those representing police officers and teachers, are critical of the decision on the basis that their members are routinely exposed to the public (as, indeed, are shop workers and numerous other professions), but the Government is right. This is not to rule out flexibility on a local basis: if there are spare vaccines available, they should be used as GPS and other vaccination centres see fit. But the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation points to evidence suggesting that the age-based model remains the most efficient method of reducing hospitalisations and deaths; targeting operational groups would be less easy to deliver; and that making the system more complex might slow down the rollout, leaving vulnerable older people at risk.

The priority should lie with those groups who will suffer the worst reaction to Covid, which will include thousands of those within frontline professions anyway. An occupation-based programme has never been tested on a large scale in the UK before and jobs are not necessarily listed in medical records. The bottom line is that people know where they stand with the age-led approach and its simplicity is a virtue when speed is of the essence. So far, the programme has been proceeding well, with a target of everyone over 50 being offered their first jab by April 15 and all adults by July 31. Hopefully Britain will move even faster than that. It needs to.