Day by day, jab by jab

This is the latest evening briefing for Reaction subscribers. Become a subscriber here.

Boris Johnson’s new promise is a bold one. He wants to ratchet up the country’s vaccination programme to inject two million people a week against the coronavirus to lift lockdown as swiftly as possible.

But as the Prime Minister admitted, this target could only be done: “Day by day, jab by jab.” Yet for once, achieving this ambition by mid- February does not look impossible. To date, 1.1 million people in England have had a first dose with 1.3 million in total across the UK who have received one of the two vaccines.

That translates into 650,000 of the over 80s, or 23% of the total cohort of that age group, equivalent to one in four of the most vulnerable around whom we need to put an ‘invisible shield.’

What was also interesting from today’s press briefing was the way the Prime Minister defended the government’s decision to continue vaccinating those most vulnerable first, making the point that the average age of those dying with Covid-19 are in their 80s. Despite the rise of those infected with the virus – up to 60,000 cases today and a total of one in 50 of all Britons – the average age of those dying is 82 years.  Although the PM did not say so directly, his defence was a clear rejection of the arguments being forward by some that teachers and other front-line workers should be first in the queue to allow schools to stay open.

Even Johnson’s chief medical adviser, Professor Chris Whitty, when asked if he thought Johnson’s 2 million target was possible, was a little more optimistic than usual. “It’s realistic but not easy.’ As Whitty also said, the vaccinations have had to be rolled out relatively carefully in case of problems. He didn’t name the problems but we know what he meant.

From next Monday, Johnson has also promised a daily tally of the numbers vaccinated. It will certainly help cancel out the horrible daily death toll which, hopefully by then, will be starting to fall.

Meanwhile, the number of vaccination centres is set to increase as the NHS takes over more leisure and exhibition centres where they will be running their vaccination roll-out. So far, there are now 1,000 vaccination centres open throughout the country. As of this week, 5,000 military personnel have been drafted in to help with the programme, the biggest military operation in peacetime.

Rishi needs a stronger bridge 

Rishi Sunak’s latest £4.6bn of support for companies already among the hardest hit by the pandemic is being criticised by business leaders as not being enough to head off a wave of closures and redundancies. Their criticism follows on from the Chancellor’s decision to give one-off grants of £9,000 to around 600,000 retail, hospitality and leisure firms to tide them over until the spring.

On top of the grants worth £4bn, Sunak is giving another £594 million to local councils to help businesses hit by lockdown 3.0 but which are not eligible for the grants. The Scottish government will receive £375m, the Welsh government £227m and the Northern Ireland executive will get £127m.

Despite the new emergency package, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, Adam Marshall, called on the government to do even more. Marshall wants  a long-term plan that allows all businesses – whatever their size – to survive. Marshall has a point: the stop-gap payments – or sticking plaster as others call it – are not going to be enough to see these firms over until the restrictions are lifted at the end of lockdown, which could be months away. The self-employed are also still facing huge problems, many of whom have not received any money at all either through furlough schemes or grants.

And there is also a big difference today compared to the March lockdown. Many business owners went into the crisis cash-rich or had personal savings to see them over. Now most of that floating cash has been gobbled up. Sunak calls his strategy bridge- building. Sadly, the river is getting wider by the hour. Criticising the Treasury is not good enough. Sunak and business leaders need to bash heads to come up with a better bridge.

King of the Bean 

Tonight is Twelfth Night, the eve of the Epiphany – or the Three Kings Day – and the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas as marked by the arrival of the Three Wise Men.

According to English folklore, tonight was celebrated in the 18th and 19th centuries with much cake and alcohol. There was even a special Twelfth Night cake baked with a bean and a pea in it. Custom has it that whoever got the bean was the King and whoever got the pea was the Queen, with the ‘King of the Bean’ taking charge of the festivities which are said to have originated on the continent. Another eve custom was that of wassailing, which thanks to medieval historian Eleanor Parker – a must to follow on Twitter @ClerkofOxford – is the tradition of lighting fires and drinking from a ceremonial wassail bowl – in the hope of auguring in a good crop for next year. It’s a tradition that needs reviving pronto.

As Parker tells us, wassailing comes from an Old English phrase, ‘wes hal’, ‘be in good health,’ which is particularly apposite this year. So to all our readers and subscribers, let me say ‘wes hal’. And enjoy your cake and alcohol tonight. Before it runs out.

Maggie Pagano,
Executive Editor