The print, TV and social media all over the world are already broadcasting the success of the Oxford Vaccine project. The astonishing fact is that all the vaccine projects that have reached this stage have shown high levels of protection. No-one in the Oxford trial needed to be hospitalised. That is great news for the Health service, still seriously overwhelmed by the pandemic.
The advantages of what the Oxford Vaccine project has achieved have also been widely acknowledged. It can be made widely available since it does not require very low temperature storage and the deal with Astra-Zeneca is a non-profit one. It will therefore be relatively cheap and easy to use.
So, can we now relax? Well, no not really. We have learnt a lot from the pandemic. In particular we have learnt that we need a new cooperative social culture. The countries that avoided lockdown or the terrible damage to their economies include ones in which social customs favour the wearing of masks to protect ourselves and others, and the strict implementation of test and trace strategies.
We need to embed this lesson in our future strategies. Coronavirus will not be the last world pandemic! Let’s maintain the social cohesion we are learning.
Meanwhile, we continue to praise all the health and other key workers, now including the fantastic vaccine team at the university:
Link to the song video: A call to the whole nation