UK failed to act quickly against COVID-19 pandemic, says lead scientist

A leading UK scientist, who worked on the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, has criticised the British government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of the outbreak. Sarah Gilbert, who led the team behind AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, has said the United Kingdom failed to heed the warnings until too late into the pandemic, and in some respect, lessons are still unlearned. Professor Gilbert, while talking to Observer, acknowledged the government's effort to set-up a vaccine manufacturing centre, but said it would have been better if it had been up and running in 2020, adding it won't be operational until late-2021, which is very late.

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Professor Gilbert also pointed out how the government failed to heed warnings about 'disease X', against which the World Health Organization (WHO) had warned a long time ago. Professor Gilbert also highlighted how everyone was still talking about the dangers of airborne viruses when it was already clear that coronavirus spread through the air after the Mers outbreak in 2015. This comes as the UK government is moving towards vaccinating 15 million people by February 15. 

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UK vaccination drive

The inoculation drive in the United Kingdom is in full swing at the moment with more than 14 million people vaccinated so far. The UK government intends to vaccinate 15 million people by mid-February so it could start easing restrictions in the country by early March as the vaccines take a minimum of 15 days to trigger an immune response. The UK has registered more than 4 million COVID-19 cases so far, of which over 1,16,000 people have lost their lives. 

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The UK is witnessing the second wave currently, which is being fuelled by a new strain of the COVID-19 virus. On February 12, the UK recorded more than 14,000 new cases and over 750 new deaths. The UK has passed its peak from recording an average of over 50,000 new cases to now at 15,000 cases per day. However, the infection rate is still high compared to some of the other nations in the most affected countries' list. 

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