The vagaries of the Covid-19 vaccine programme

The US has reached a spectacular milestone: 100 million people vaccinated against Covid-19. Still a long way to go but that means more than 30 per cent of the population have had the jab. And as a direct consequence, companies are telling their employees to return to work, and thus the economy is beginning to spiral upwards. If there was ever an argument needed for a successful vaccination programme to boost an economy driven into the ground by the pandemic, then here it is. The US is bouncing back in rapid fashion. With so many people returning to work, the federal government's furlough scheme for propping up jobs can be phased out. All of which makes it extraordinary that Europe has failed so abysmally to follow suit. The 27 countries of the EU are way behind, still struggling to vaccinate everyone, still arguing about the efficacy and safety of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, and still demoralised by a new surge in infection cases. And still presumably being buried in debt to keep economically afloat. The UK, like the US, has been bold and decisive and vaccine-grabbing and is coming out of the shadows of the virus and plotting a gradual return to normality and a hoped-for booming economy. We don't yet know whether the huge debts can be paid off quickly or whether we are all going to be stuck in a financial mess for a decade or two. But judging by the way the US economy is going right now, with 916,000 jobs created last month, there is every reason to be optimistic that the UK will enjoy the same benefits. What about Europe? France, Italy, Germany and others are still in a precarious state, and largely due to incompetent, dilatory, hesitant, visionless, backbiting leadership. Historians will be damning in their judgments. Far too many people will have died because of poor political leadership. In every country in the world. That includes the UK and the US where there have also been tragic failures and an appalling loss of life. But perhaps especially in Europe, poor decision-making has led to an unforgiveably slow vaccination programme.