Lessons from the vaccine task force
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2023
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In May 2020 a group of experts came together, at speed, to form the UK’s Vaccine Task Force. Born in the teeth of a crisis, its efforts were responsible for allowing Britain to be among the first countries in the world to roll out vaccines against Covid-19. But as memories of the pandemic fade, the urgency it brought to its work has subsided as well. In this edition of Analysis, Sandra Kanthal asks what lessons have been learned from the success of the Vaccine Task Force and if we should be prepared to allocate the time, energy and expense required to be permanently prepared for the next global health emergency.
Presenter: Sandra Kanthal Producer: Sandra Kanthal Editor: Clare Fordham
Transcript
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| 0:41.0 | Thank you for listening to this edition of Analysis, the podcast. podcasts. I'll be looking at the UK's Vaccine Task Force, which allow the country to be among the first in the world to roll out jabs for COVID-19. |
| 0:58.0 | I'll be asking if we've learned enough from its successful efforts. |
| 1:12.0 | The UK has become the first country in the world to begin using a fully tested vaccine against coronavirus. On December 8th, 2020, in a hospital in Coventry, |
| 1:17.6 | Margaret Keenan became the first person outside of trials to receive a clinically approved vaccine for COVID-19. It was a real moment of hope |
| 1:28.0 | after a long bleak year and began the UK's road out of lockdown. |
| 1:33.0 | It's so wonderful really. |
| 1:35.0 | This is for a good cause, so I'm so pleased I had it done. |
| 1:39.0 | These new vaccines, first from Pfizer Biotech, |
| 1:42.0 | then quickly followed by Moderna, AstraZeneca, and others, |
| 1:46.0 | were a remarkable achievement for science. |
| 1:50.0 | The fact that the United Kingdom was so successful in the rollout of these newly approved jabs was, in large part, the result of efforts of the UK's Vaccine Task Force. |
| 2:01.0 | It assembled a portfolio of potential COVID-19 vaccines and secured |
| 2:06.8 | swift access to them by signing contracts with their manufacturers even |
| 2:11.3 | before regulatory approval was granted. |
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