This morning the Government has announced a deal with GSK and Sanofi Pasteur, securing early access to 60 million doses of their “promising Covid-19 vaccine” for the country. This is on top of existing deals now giving the Government 250 million doses of the developing Covid vaccines from four different companies…

The Government claims that if the vaccine from GSK is proved to be effective in human studies, the UK could be able to begin mass vaccination of priority groups – frontline health workers, social care workers and those most vulnerable – from the first half of 2021. Promising stuff.

Guido readers may remember the furore from the left and the lobby at the height of the pandemic over the Government’s refusal to join the EU’s PPE scheme, only for Guido to point out the scheme hadn’t delivered a single piece of protective equipment by the end of April. With Coronavirus second spikes emerging across the EU, the European Commission has stalled on securing vaccine supplies, still in talk-mode at “various stages” of negotiating deals, “mired in wrangles over price, payment method and potential liability costs”. The UK’s Coronavirus response looks like it continues to now be Europe-beating, and proving the efficiency of self-governance…