This afternoon I attended an online seminar organised by the Local Government Association on the rollout of the COVID vaccine.

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam MBE, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, explained that only ten per cent of vaccines typically make it through testing, so we have had to back multiple vaccines of multiple types to try to develop a working vaccine quickly. We don’t know how rapidly the virus will mutate in future so the vaccine may be like the flu jab which changes from time to time as the predominant strain of flu changes. We also don’t know how long vaccine protection will last. There would be several more vaccines available by autumn 2021.

Sue Harriman, Chief Operating Officer of the COVID-19 Vaccination Deployment Programme, described the practicalities of rolling out the vaccine to nursing homes. GP practices, and soon mass vaccination centres and pharmacies. People will be called up in priority order to receive the vaccine, either through their GP or by letter through a nationally-organised process.

James Sorene, Deputy Director of COVID-19 Vaccine Communications at the Department of Health & Social Care, reminded us that we would still need to maintain hygiene and public health measures after the vaccination programme. Willingness to receive the vaccination was high, which was good news.

David Pearson CBE, Chair Social Care Sector at the COVID-19 Support Taskforce, talked about the Joint Committee on Vaccination & Immunisation and how they had prioritised those who would receive the vaccine soonest. Jonathan Van-Tam noted that 99 per cent of COVID mortality comes from the nine priority groups identified to receive the vaccine in Phase One.

We heard about the difficulties of manufacturing the vaccine to the standards required, but we were also told that the nine priority groups in Phase One could be vaccinated pretty quickly.

It was an encouraging presentation showing that whatever may be going on in government, in real life the scientists and health professionals are getting on with making the vaccine available as quickly as possible to those for whom it will make the most difference.