Podcast special: Britain in the global fight against Covid

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

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Summary

The UK was the first country in the world to begin its formal vaccine rollout, starting with the 91 year old Margaret Keenan. In the years since, the pandemic has been almost entirely routed in this country (though its impact on the economy, on healthcare, on the criminal justice system, continue to be suffered). But the British vaccine – developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca – was a key part of the global fight against the pandemic. What was it like to be on the inside during those crucial first months? The Spectator has brought together politicians, advisors and scientists who played key roles during that time, to reveal a picture of dealing with unprecedented crisis in smart ways.

On this episode: Kate Andrews, The Spectator's economics editor, talks to Nadhim Zahawi (Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who had been the first Vaccines Minister during the pandemic); Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, head of UK Music who was a special advisor to then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock; Professor Andrew Pollard, chief investigator for the clinical trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine; and Isabel Hardman, The Spectator's assistant editor.

This episode is the first of a mini-series taking a look at Britain in the world, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're part of a moment of history, the first to receive this vaccine.
0:05.4	How does that feel?
0:08.2	It hasn't sunk in yet.
0:10.8	This was the moment that gave the world hope when the 91-year-old grandmother Margaret
0:15.3	Keenan was the first Brit to be vaccinated.
0:18.1	So how did the UK become one of the world leaders in vaccine production,
0:22.1	rollout and take up? The UK started rolling out its first doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
0:27.6	It's being called V-Day in Britain, and it's hoped the vaccine will mark the beginning of the end
0:33.4	in the war against the virus. Well, it's just, you know, it's been such a tough year for so many people
0:40.6	and there's William Shakespeare putting it so simply for everybody
0:45.2	that, you know, we can get on with our lives.
0:48.9	The rollout of the vaccine has been a game changer in the fight against COVID-19,
0:53.4	in the UK and globally.
0:55.5	Britain had a head start after our regulators cut unnecessary red tape, the government backed a number
1:00.8	of vaccine candidates, several of which paid off, and the University of Oxford developed a
1:05.8	homegrown vaccine with AstraZeneca. What was that first year like for those in the middle of the action?
1:12.3	For this special podcast from The Spectator, we've spoken to some of those from the worlds of
1:16.7	politics and science who were at the forefront of the UK's fight against COVID-19.
1:22.3	I'm Kate Andrews, a Spectator's economics editor, and this podcast is kindly sponsored by the Bill
1:27.0	and Melinda Gates
1:27.7	Foundation. Jamie Najoko Goodwin was a special advisor to Matt Hancock, the then health secretary.
1:34.2	I started by asking him when, in the Department of Health, they started to take the new virus coming
	...

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