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

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.

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