BRENDAN WREN: Britain cannot be held to ransom by vaccine refuseniks

For a man who has luggage set featured in 2016 viagra ad so much store throughout his political career on boosterism, Boris Johnson has been notably pessimistic about our emergence from the shadow of Covid.On Monday, he dramatically warned that a third wave of coronavirus will ‘wash up on our shores’ from Europe.It is certainly true that the news from the Continent is alarming.Germany has imposed an ‘Easter lockdown’ to curb a new surge in the virus, with Chancellor Angela Merkel saying the country is in a ‘very serious’ situation.French authorities have re-imposed comparable measures across 16 regions, including Paris, affecting some 21 million people.Italy, for its part, is facing its own full shutdown from April 3 to 5 during the Easter weekend.The prospect of British holidaymakers sunning themselves on Europe’s beaches this summer now hangs in the balance. For a man who has set so much store throughout his political career on boosterism, Boris Johnson (pictured) has been notably pessimistic about our emergence from the shadow of CovidFrighteningBut is the Prime Minister right — that it is inevitable that Britain will succumb to a third wave as well?Certainly, previous dire warnings about the pandemic in mainland Europe being echoed here have turned out to be all too true.We all remember the scenes from hospitals in northern Italy at the start of last year, foreshadowing the terrible events that soon became our own reality.But this time, I truly believe it’s different. And the reason for that can be summarised in one word: vaccines.So far, in an astonishing display of determination and logistical brilliance, we’ve managed to vaccinate more than 28 million people, more than half the adult British population.This remarkable effort, combined with the effects of lockdown, has caused the number of Covid patients in hospital to plunge from a peak of almost 40,000 on January 18 to fewer than 5,500 yesterday, just as these numbers are rising for our closest European neighbours, who have vaccinated a fraction of the numbers we have. RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next BRENDAN WREN: The REALLY good news? The best is yet to come Door-to-door testing could actually SPREAD disease we are… Share this article Share Britain now has the world’s fourth most-effective vaccination programme and by far the most effective one in Europe: an achievement that has caused division and envy on the Continent and, sadly, will only mean its death toll is likely to grow.Yesterday, remarkable new data from the Office for National Statistics showed that, last week, England and Wales suffered no excess deaths for the first time since August, the numbers in fact dipping 4.4 per cent below the five-year average.Deaths were also below the levels expected in all but one region. Even the notoriously gloomy scientific adviser Professor Neil Ferguson now admits that the numbers show ‘the second devastating wave of the pandemic is behind us’. So far, in an astonishing display of determination and logistical brilliance, we’ve managed to vaccinate more than 28 million people, more than half the adult British population. Picture: File imageSo does that mean that Boris is wrong, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief?Well, perhaps not yet.I’m not unduly worried about frightening-sounding ‘new variants’ of the virus.Viruses mutate all the time, and scientists believe our current vaccines can be tweaked to deal with them. No, the only way that Boris’s worst fears will come to pass, and a third wave will arrive here, is if the vaccine rollout stumbles.That might be because, as has been threatened, our European neighbours seize and divert the vital doses — although I am hopeful this will not take place.