This unaltered story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.org.
License [2]: Creative Commons 4.0 - Attributions/No Derivities/Int'l.
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How did England end up in this unprepared Omicron mess?

By:   []

Date: 2021-12

As England stumbles towards the end of the year, confused about whether to socialise, and worried the predicted explosion of infections from already record levels could mean another Christmas isolated from friends and family – how on earth did we get here?

Earlier this year Boris Johnson was riding high on a ‘vaccine bounce’, with the UK boasting of the most successful immunisation programme in the world.

But the risks were clear. For months, we’ve known that vaccine immunity from two doses is unlikely to last very long. And we’ve known that new variants could well challenge that further.

In early September, scientists on the government’s SAGE committee wrote that “real world data in England” showed “waning of vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease from approximately 10 weeks after the second dose”.

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In October, epidemiologist Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London told BBC Radio 4: “I do think it’s critical we accelerate the booster programme.”

So what happened?

How did we get to the point where this week, NHS hospitals have been told they must free up beds for COVID patients by discharging many other sick people to private hospitals, care homes, hospices or hotels? Where the prime minister and the health secretary issue last-minute pleas for volunteers to help vaccinate? Where the prime minister tells us that to meet his new booster target, “routine” NHS appointments will once again be postponed – with all the risk of missed diagnoses that entails?

We got here because we have a profoundly, shamefully wasteful government.
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