Spain and Europe pull ahead of Britain in the great coronavirus vaccination race

Spain and Europe pull ahead of Britain in the great coronavirus vaccination race. With the world now heading into the second winter of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Europe and Spain are racing ahead of the UK in the vaccination race.

The UK had a head start in the vaccination race but since Europe joined in they have been working at a staggering pace. France have now nudged slightly ahead of the UK on single jabs but many areas of Europe such as Spain, Denmark, Finland and Portugal have a greater percentage of their citizens who are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission recently said: “The EU has kept its word and delivered,”

“The catch-up process has been very successful.”

Jeremy Warner, the economic commentator for the Telegraph commented on how the UK cannot stand another lockdown. He said: “Maybe the Prime Minister will get lucky, and vaccines will be enough,”

“It’s just that it would be so much more reassuring if there was a credible Plan B. The economy cannot take another lockdown.”

Sage member and director of the Wellcome Trust, Sir Jeremy Farrar has taken to Twitter to call for a public debate on the current coronavirus policy.

“The pandemic is not going away,” said Sir Farrar.

He believes that there will be “high transmission, infections, illness, deaths. What balance and trade-offs are we willing to accept?”

“What adjustments in behaviour and what amount of illness, hospitalisations and, tragically, deaths are we willing to accept as a society?”

Prof Devi Sridhar, chairman of global public health at the University of Edinburgh has explained that is not just the number of cases of coronavirus that matter. The Professor believes that we need to look into the matter more deeply.

“Case numbers matter, but we have to be looking at who is behind those numbers,” said Prof Sridhar.

“We’re in a new world where people can test positive while being fully vaccinated, and might just be at home with a cold… we need to get beneath the numbers and focus on hospitalisations.”

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