Lords: vaccine taskforce vital before next pandemic

Britain needs a "peacetime vaccine task force" to prepare for the next pandemic, ministers have been warned amid concerns that the government could forget the lessons of Covid-19.

- REBECCA THOMAS

The Commons science and technology committee has also called for the government to appoint a chief vaccines officer to help prepare the country for future threats.

In a letter sent this week, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, chair of the committee, said evidence to an inquiry held by the committee raised “troubling concerns about our capacity to manufacture vaccines for future biological threats”.

The warning comes after the government announced it has bought more than 5 million doses of bird flu vaccines to help battle a potential future pandemic. This follows an increase in transmission of the virus among animals.