is about to be overwhelmed with a staring of coronavirus that a Western-style lockdown will not suppress, but fortunately there is a simple way through (thread)

1) UK govt needs to get in touch with MHRA to check barriers to approving Oxford vaccine and sort them out now, an emergency use authorisation is required as this is a serious emergency

2) distribute the doses of Oxford vaccine we have around the country starting tomorrow, pre-approval, including setting up the stadium based community vaccination hubs, so they are ready to go the day after the MHRA makes their decision

3) send military logistics experts to help sort out the supply chain issues that have delayed large-scale production of the Oxford vaccine in the UK so far https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-04/delays-hit-oxford-vaccine-production-for-u-k-government-supply

4) urgently review the decisions made by the Vaccine Taskforce on the likely availability of other vaccines, in particular the Moderna vaccine, and pay whatever they ask to increase and prioritise our order

5) and most controversially but most importantly: go straight back to a full mid-March national lockdown now to try and buy enough time to prevent what will likely be tens of thousands of avoidable deaths if we delay any more

I don’t recommend another national lockdown just before Christmas lightly of course, but we are right on the brink of preventing 99% of these deaths with vaccinations!

given the massively increased speed of spread of this new variant, it’s honestly unclear if we can even suppress the virus to R<1 with these measures, but it’s unconscionable not to even try when we already have the cure

the Times is reporting that this new variant is already making up 10-60% of new infections through the *whole* UK already, so just like with Lockdown 1.0 the virus is already way ahead of us

but with one last national push we can save tens of thousands of lives this Christmas. thanks to our scientists, we know just enough, just in time. it would be madness not to act.

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