The UK’s ability to tackle COVID-19 has been dependent on its status as a wealthy nation. This status should not be taken for granted, and is one we should certainly be doing more to protect…

Even though we will be paying for it in the long-term, the UK can afford the almost £12bn spent on vaccines so far, and has a publicly-funded national health service that can distribute them. The UK population is also willing to be inoculated: 70% of people in the UK said they would take the COVID-19 vaccine in a recent poll, compared to just 45% in France and 58% in the United States. Second, the UK has access to domestically-manufactured vaccines that can be kept at fridge temperature, making them significantly easier to store and distribute. Vaccinations are indeed already underway, with 1.3m people in the UK already having received a COVID-19 vaccine.

South Africa’s inability to acquire vaccines and lack of inoculation plan has resulted in senior officials downplaying the efficacy of the vaccine.

Compare this to the situation faced in South Africa. It is a nation too wealthy to qualify for reduced-rate vaccines from international aid organisations. However, its government is nearing insolvency, spending most of its money trying to rescue the grounded national airline, propping them up with a 10.5bn rand bail-out in October, and half of the country’s population live in poverty. South Africa therefore cannot afford vaccines in the way the UK can. The country is instead relying on the vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX, a facility with opaque processes that will only receive a sufficient quantity of vaccines in the next six to nine months that then have to be distributed to the scheme’s numerous participants. South Africa’s inability to acquire vaccines and lack of inoculation plan has resulted in senior officials downplaying the efficacy of the vaccine.

The economy is the vessel that has enabled our survival over the past 10 months and our ability to tackle the current crisis. Why then aren’t we working to protect it?

Civilians in countries such as the UK are lucky to live in a nation wealthy enough to be able to afford to vaccinate its citizens. What do we have to thank for that privilege? The economy. The economy is the vessel that has enabled our survival over the past 10 months and our ability to tackle the current crisis. Why then aren’t we working to protect it, and instead putting it under more strain with another national lockdown? We know the extent to which lockdowns damage the economy. They cripple businesses and threaten to create a generation of young people who have not been taught the necessary skills to acquire a job.

This lockdown threatens to damage our economy to the extent that we may not have the means to tackle a future crisis, lacking the economic means or international influence to acquire solutions such as a vaccine. For that, future generations will not thank us.