SO, we are out the other side of the second national lockdown and let’s hope it will be for the last time.
Indeed, there’s good reason to believe it will be, as this week our medicines regulator, the MHRA, has approved the Pfizer vaccine. This means we will be the first country in the world to roll out a properly validated, safe and reliable vaccine for Covid-19.
We have ordered about eighty million doses – enough for forty million of us – which will be delivered starting with 800,000 next week. Approval for the simpler, cheaper Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccine is expected soon.
We owe a lot to the MHRA which has world-renowned status. It really isn’t a race but I think we can be allowed to take a quiet pride in being the first whilst the rest of Europe waits for its regulator the EMA to give the green light.
It is largely due to the potential game changer in the vaccine and also rapid testing that I chose to back the Government’s measure on Tuesday which placed us in Tier Two.
I have been in close contact with our local hospitals – Salisbury and Bath – and their data has largely vindicated the Government’s decision to lock down last month. Cases were rising whilst we were in Tier One, and hospital admissions due to Covid peaked before duly falling three weeks after locking down – all as the model used by the Government’s experts predicted.
I am acutely aware of the damage to lives, livelihoods and liberties that come hand in hand with blanket restrictions, so I will continue to scrutinise the Government’s approach based on the data available.
But we can all play our part in keeping cases low, by adhering to the basic hygiene practices with which we have become so accustomed. Hopefully, in this way, we will stay safe whilst retaining some freedoms in Tier Two as we carry out our exit strategy.
One of my MP colleagues has come up with the good idea of creating NHS Reserves based on our experience during this crisis.
Like our Armed Forces Reserves, which I’m still an active member of, the purpose of the NHS Reserves would be to mobilise volunteers when the need arises. I would certainly sign up and am just sorry I didn’t come up with the idea myself!