Operation vaccine confusion

Politicians have a favourite word. It's clarity. They always want more clarity. Well, so do we all, so do we all, especially with Covid vaccines, lockdown, restriction-lifting dates and whether or not foreign holidays are permitted. In the UK foreign travel - holidays - is supposed to be allowed from May 17. But that has been thrown into doubt because of the third wave of coronavirus throughout Europe and the possibility that every European country will be on the UK's red list - ie banning all travel to and from them. Then up pops legislation which appears to state that all foreign travel is banned until the end of June and that if anyone is caught sneaking out of the country will be fined £5,000. So naturally all the newspapers today are full of doom and gloom. Then Matt Hancock, the health secretary and Master of Confusion, declares, at least I think he did if I got it right, that although the legislation seems to say that, actually it's not true and the timetable previously set for foreign holidays is still applicable. Depending of course on the situation at the time. So half ok and half maybe not. Meanwhile in the US, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is available but has been very sketchily distributed and there are reports of millions of the doses sitting in fridges. And the furore over the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine continues, except in the UK where it's being distributed and jabbed into people's arms at an accelerated rate. No other country seems to like it. Europe remains iffy but wants to keep what it does have for themselves. It's very difficult to keep a grip on what is happening. The one truism worth hanging on to is that the vaccination programme is the only way out of this pandemic and the quicker Europe can get on with its jabs the better it will be for all those Brits who are planning a summer holiday on the beach in Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Portugal or wherever.