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Less than half of the UK population could be vaccinated against Covid-19, said the head of the country’s Vaccine Working Group.
Saying that vaccinating the entire population “is not going to happen” and would be “wrong”, in her interview with the Financial Times, Kate Bingham postpones the holy grail of herd immunity for months beyond next spring, saying that we will be living with the virus for years.
As chair of the UK Vaccine Task Force, she says only the elderly, the vulnerable and those working in healthcare settings will be vaccinated.
In other words, the vaccine would protect those who are most likely to become acutely ill or whose services are most needed.
However, all the evidence shows that young people are the main transmitters of the coronavirus, which would still be in the community.
We would also need to maintain social distancing, as we could never be sure that a vaccine would provide full protection to the weak and elderly.
Obviously these decisions feel a bit premature, awaiting approval of a vaccine or vaccines, and we understand what kind of protection it provides.
But in other countries there is an active debate about the benefits of vaccination across the country.
And vaccine specialists tell me that, paradoxically, the vaccine is more likely to be effective in young people who get it than in the elderly.
So maybe it’s a little weird that Kate Bingham wants to close that debate here.
