Covid vaccination news

Last 24 hours Pfizer announced covid vaccination trails have 90% success rate. Not the only ones, others have spoken about positive results. Vaccination arms race hundreds of candidates, private to state funded projects. Rush to be first to market, margins around vaccinations are generally low. This the reason why flu still exists, not worth the time or money to solve. Markets are inefficient without incentives or regulatory institutions guiding.  Reputation is what most seek, stated funded want geopolitical gains. China and Russia both promised low cost for africa. Nations have divided up the process. Shortest time taken to develop 4 years, average is 7 years.  Pharmaceutical companies around the world, looking at breaking that record. Whole process puts safety front and centre. Medical treatments do carry risks, but compared to standard infection far lower.

Any vaccination won’t solve the problem but could go long way to helping. Next part is mass vaccination program with high take up. Most difficult thing to get right.  High take up is required, need loads of trust to do that. What needs to happen now is being honest with the public. Economy is going to recover but won’t be the same shape as before. Existing fiscal stabilizers are too weak, providing little to no safety net. Small window of opportunity here for some structural changes on sick pay. Fiscal neutral which won’t need tax increases. Avoiding lasting long term damage to prospects of many people. Further measures going to be needed. Extra fiscal support now gets much stronger case. Funding further incentives to avoid spreading the infection. Job losses will happen so increasing UC makes sense.

Doing nothing is not an option, virus will cause damage. Behaviour will change as it spreads, lockdowns are much more controlled. Further lockdowns are price worth paying. Not offering support will do even more damage. Failure to act won’t be rewarded, will only fuel frustration. Covid has exposed the spending priorities and lack of joined up thinking within westminster.

What happens next depends on the political choices made now. I don’t expect Christmas to be normal this year. Merry Covidmas