a
myriad of different settings all helping
the nation to achieve
one goal protect us from the virus
and early data from the real world
suggests that the vaccines
are making us safer both the pfizer
and astrazeneca vaccines are reducing
the likelihood of hospitalizations
by 80 percent following an interval
after just
one dose and the death rate amongst
those over 80
who are among the first to be vaccinated
is falling
faster than those under 80. this shows
in the real world
across the uk right now that the vaccine
is helping
both to protect the nhs and to save
lives
this variant but caution is still the
watchword
with the news that the so-called
brazilian variant has
arrived on our shores it may be more
resistant
to vaccines and england's deputy chief
medical officer
wants us to be patient as we await the
full rollout
of the vaccines there's a lot to look
forwards to
it's very tempting to just go right
we've seen the results that means the
problems
fixed the problem isn't
fixed yet but we definitely
have identified a way of fixing the
problem
and the early data show us how to do
that
and where to advance from here
and so the government's roadmap for
england which has a target of ending
all social restrictions by mid-summer's
day will be introduced
carefully each step to open up will only
be taken
if the science allows what we're doing
is embarking now on a journey a one-way
road map to freedom
and it's designing designedly cautious
in order to be irreversible that's what
we're hoping to
achieve and some people say we should go
faster
some people say we should be more
hesitant i think we're going at the
right pace
our famously boosterish prime minister
is sounding
upbeat but acting with uncharacteristic
caution
because he wants this to be the last
lockdown
one of his aides told me yes there is
good news on the vaccines but
we are constantly scanning the horizon
because this virus
has a habit of springing nasty surprises
scientists are hopeful but warning us to
be
on our guard this vaccination program
will go down in history as one of
mankind's greatest achievements in
science and
infectious diseases i firmly believe
that but it's not a panacea you know
there will be stumbling blocks ahead i
think the
beauty of it is that we've got in the uk
a science base
a surveillance base a public health base
is in the position where we need it to
be to deal with that
and so i think we should be optimistic
but mindful
that there could be problems ahead the
snp
is worried that the uk government may
have
undermined the fight against new
variants
by only obliging arrivals from so-called
at-risk countries
to quarantine in hotels i think the
concern about just
having such a limited red list
approach to quarantine is simply that we
do already know that the brazilian and
south african variants
are already in many other countries so
you can have someone
who's coming who is carrying it and you
simply don't know that
the other aspect is simply that there
will be parts of the world where there
isn't much genomic testing
and variants will emerge and we won't
know anything about them
and therefore it is safer to put people
into
managed quarantine in a hotel
no sign yet of a return to normality
and dangerous lurk but steps
perhaps faltering at times on a journey
towards brighter days