Evening Standard Comment: Jabbing the world must still be the priority

Professor Samba Sow on a vaccination field visit
CVD-Mali
Evening Standard Comment20 September 2021
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Another challenge facing the Prime Minister is that of jabbing the world. Activists — not least this paper’s Vaccines for the World campaign, backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — are asking Boris Johnson to do more to provide vaccines to poorer countries. It is the right and expedient thing to do.

If new variants develop abroad, they will ultimately arrive here. In fact, health campaigners say as many as 100 million Covid vaccines may go to waste if they are not used by Christmas and their expiry date.

Those vaccines should go to poor countries. In the longer term, we must do more to help them develop vaccine manufacturing capability of their own.

Summer in September

Summer has been prolonged this year. The Chelsea Flower Show is opening tomorrow, months late, and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition has only just got underway.

The pandemic is playing fast and loose with the seasons, but we’ll appreciate these summer events all the more for being late. Pity the weather hasn’t got the message.

Daily cartoon

1/30

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in