Vaccines UK has made little progress in getting ready for new pandemic, says ex-taskforce chief

The UK is not in a significantly better place to deal with a new pandemic, the former vaccine taskforce chief has said, as a leading public health expert suggested Covid infections may be on the rise again.

- Nicola Davis

Dame Kate Bingham, the managing partner at the life sciences venture capital firm SV Health Investors, headed the UK's vaccine taskforce between May and December 2020.

The taskforce played a key role in securing the country's backing of, and access to, a wide portfolio of potential Covid jabs - a move that has been credited with putting the UK on the front foot for early deployment of vaccines during the pandemic.

But, speaking to the Commons health and social care committee about lessons learned during the pandemic, Bingham said many of the initiatives set up by the taskforce had been dismantled, while its key recommendations had not been acted upon. Among her concerns, Bingham cited the failure to create bulk antibody-manufacturing capabilities in the UK and the proposed termination of the NHS Covid vaccine research registry through which the public could volunteer for vaccine trials.

The decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to close the registry was eventually reversed after Robert Jenrick, then a health minister, stepped in. "I am baffled as to the decisions that are being made," she said.