The Oxford vaccine is a British breakthrough of global significance
Sarah Gilbert, scientist (Courtesy: University of Oxford)
In the global drama that is the Covid-19 pandemic, the success of the Oxford vaccine is a great scientific victory for humanity. The world now has three highly effective vaccines with which to launch the largest immunisation programme in history.
As things stand, it is likely that the Oxford vaccine will be the most widely used, for the simple reason that it is the cheapest. When administered in two doses, it is no less effective than its rivals. Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Moderna and Oxford ones can be kept at fridge temperatures. In addition, AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical giant that will manufacture the vaccine, has promised to deliver billions of doses at cost until the pandemic is over. This gesture alone should silence the cynics who take it for granted that “Big Pharma” is driven solely by profit.
The fact that this is a British breakthrough is a source of genuine patriotic pride. The Oxford vaccine is a model of how academic, commercial and state organisations can work together to produce a drug that may well save countless lives. The logistical task that lies ahead to manufacture, distribute and innoculate by the billion is almost unimaginable, but the hardest part of this remarkable experiment is behind us. Even our normally pessimistic Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty has allowed himself a smile, as he predicted that by Easter the “vast majority” of vulnerable people in Britain would have been vaccinated, rendering lockdowns redundant.
What the unexpected speed and success of the new Covid vaccines means is that we can look forward to the future with confidence again. This is just as well, because as soon as we emerge from the pandemic, the old problems will all be waiting for us. A grim warning comes this week from the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, that a no-deal Brexit would do even more harm than the pandemic. “I think the long-term effects would be larger than the long-term effects of Covid,” he told the Treasury select committee. Brexit trade negotiations are running out of time, even though a deal is tantalisingly within reach.
If only diplomats and politicians were as competent at their métier as the boffins and capitalists are at theirs. Yet the art of compromise is primitive compared to the science of medicine. The former is a zero-sum game, the latter a win-win one. And, as the Oxford vaccine shows, while teamwork is essential to defeating an invisible virus, politics is unavoidably adversarial.
The world’s attention may have been mesmerised by Covid, but events have continued to take their course. In the United States, President Trump has belatedly agreed to co-operate with his successor, Joe Biden. Though he refuses to recognise the incoming Democratic administration, Trump will now be bound by convention during the transmission process. The only surprise is that there have not already been more unpleasant surprises in the world’s trouble spots. But the power vacuum in the White House still has two months to run and we should expect trouble from the usual suspects.
As for China, the original source of Covid-19 and other epidemics transmitted from animals to humans: the People’s Republic has finally agreed to allow World Health Organisation experts into the country to investigate the animal origins of this coronavirus. This holds out the possibility that future outbreaks could be prevented or suppressed at source.
Only a latter-day Pangloss would say that a virus that has already infected 60 million people and killed nearly 1.5 million was all for the best, but the feats of human ingenuity that have been summoned up in adversity demonstrate that this is at any rate not the worst of all possible worlds. Sarah Gilbert, Andrew Pollard and the rest of the Oxford team have been struggling to neutralise a lethal coronavirus, among the smallest of organisms, but their vaccine is a giant step for mankind.
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