Our responsibility to get vaccinated is now greater than ever

IT now seems increasingly certain that the fast-spreading Indian variant of coronavirus is just as susceptible to the vaccine as all the other variants in widespread circulation. Although there is scientific work still to do, fears that we might have a dangerous new strain of the disease tearing through the population look unlikely.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s reassurance yesterday that new evidence gives a high degree of confidence that the vaccines work against the latest variant of concern are very welcome.

It underlines, more clearly than ever, that it is responsibility of the Government and health agencies to roll out the vaccination programme as quickly as humanly possible.

But it underlines another point, too. It is also the responsibility of citizens to go for their jabs when called. Because major concerns about the virus, which have been there from the start, have not changed – namely that if it runs out of control the National Health Service will be put under intolerable pressure – and that is bad for all of us.

Some commentators have suggested that, with a significant proportion of the population already vaccinated and many of the most vulnerable having had both doses, even the suggestion that lifting restrictions might need to be paused is simply unjustified.

The justification, however, is clear. Even a small proportion of unvaccinated individuals adds up to a big number when you are talking in the millions. And in a relatively small country like Britain, with a large population, many of whom live in closely connected communities, it doesn’t take long for a fast-spreading variant of the virus to find the vulnerable and hit them hard.

Within weeks we could be back at the point we found ourselves in the winter, with hospitals close to breaking point and death rates soaring. Then, however, the vaccine roll-out had just got going. Now it is well advanced. What’s needed – as the Prime Minister said on Friday – is a speedier administration of second jabs and for those who have not yet been vaccinated, even though called, to think again about their responsibilities, to themselves, their loved ones and society at large.

It was the Queen who said, back in February, that people should “think about other people rather than themselves” and get vaccinated. Speaking after she and the Duke of Edinburgh had the jab, she said she understood saying yes to the jab could be difficult for some but they had a responsibility to others to get vaccinated.

Today, as we prepare for the next phase of opening up on the road map to a full return to normality by the summer, that message is more relevant than ever.

Not only should people want to be protected for their own sake, they should understand their responsibility is to get protected, for the sake of others, not least the NHS staff who may otherwise have to deal with them.

There will always be some for whom the vaccine is less than effective. But we can avoid adding to that number by ensuring that, when called for a jab, we all say ‘yes.’