Setbacks are inevitable, but we are winning the pandemic war
EMOTIONS in the pandemic have been on a rollercoaster. And, after more than a week of good news with an impressive roll-out of the vaccination programme and falling case numbers, we suffered a setback yesterday with the news that a study shows the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is less effective in protecting against the South African variant of the virus.
It is easy to become despondent when good news on the battle with the virus seems to be replaced by bad. But within hours a second study showed the other major vaccine being administered in the UK, made by Pfizer BioNtech, does work effectively against the South African variant. And it is clear that, while the AstraZeneca jab is a little less efficacious in preventing cases of the South African variant, it still prevents serious illnesses which might need hospital treatment. Reducing deaths and easing pressure on the NHS is one of the main reasons for the vaccine programme. Even on the new variants, it seems the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab scores on both counts.
We are going to have to get used to setbacks as well as steps forward in tackling this pandemic. Every year flu – also a virus which can kill, don’t forget – undergoes at least one mutation and vaccine makers have to adjust their drugs to be effective against the dominant strain. It is increasingly looking as if the same goes for coronavirus.
And we have learnt that in taking sensible public health precautions we can reduce the risk of catching flu and other infections, as well as bear down on cases of Covid-19. It seems likely that a more cautious approach to infectious disease – no bad thing for many who are vulnerable – will be one of the legacies of this pandemic when it is under control.
The huge impact of coronavirus on every single one of us has led to an almost forensic examination of every twist and turn in the story. Newspapers,
broadcasters and online publishers have tried to report every new piece of information as it breaks and keep readers, viewers and listeners up to date. That’s as it should be. The Western Morning News is proud to have been and to continue to be part of that process.
But inevitably some developments – breathlessly reported, particularly with 24-hour rolling news as they happen – will turn out to be less significant than was first thought. Journalists try to sort the important from the trivial, but news is a first rough draft of history. Analysis of what really matters and makes a difference often comes later.
The trajectory of the battle against this pandemic is broadly following a positive course in Britain and will continue to do so. Many things, from new variants of disease that briefly confound the vaccines to snowstorms that force the temporary closure of vaccination centres, will hold up progress, for a time. But the snow will, melt. Revised versions of the vaccines will be developed where necessary and we will emerge from this crisis, albeit with measures that may have to be taken for many years to come. But we should not confuse bumps in the road with dead-ends. Great strides of progress are and will continue to be made.
STEVE Wright (Letters, Saturday suggests that the Cadbury factory in Keynsham would not have closed in 2011 if by then the UK had left the EU. How could the greater obstacles to exporting we are now experiencing since Brexit have helped the factory? At present hundreds, if not thousands, of UK businesses are moving all or part of their operations to the EU to make it easier for them to export to or import goods from Europe.
As far as services are concerned, (not dealt with in the government’s limited agreement) no less than 65 banks and other financial institutions have already moved their head offices from the UK to Frankfurt, or are now doing so.
Your correspondent Mike Butterfield says that we would have been better off if we had left the EU without any agreement and been forced to trade with EU countries on WTO terms. Why would adding customs duties to goods exported to and imported from the EU, in addition to the new bureaucratic obstacles to trade since 1 January, have helped our economy?
Even the present government, packed full of Brexiters, did not think that would have been a clever move.
There is no reason to blame the EU which is protecting its own interests. We chose to leave, and the government chose to leave the customs union and the single market as well. We now have to live with the consequences.
The country is unlikely to be prosperous again until it realises that the lie that we could have our cake and eat it, all the benefits of being in the club without any of the obligations, was always a Johnson fantasy.
Michael Warne Launceston, Cornwall