Ashworth: Vaccine delay disappointing after “unspeakably horrific year”

Jonathan Ashworth has called the delay in coronavirus vaccine supply, revealed in a letter to local vaccinators on Wednesday, disappointing after what he described as an “unspeakably horrific year” for the British public.

Responding to a parliamentary update on the “significant reduction” in weekly supplies from Matt Hancock this afternoon, the Shadow Health Secretary challenged the minister over the impact on the government’s roll-out plan.

“Our constituents will be worried, anxious and disappointed at the news on vaccination last night,” he said. “It has been an unspeakably horrific year. We’ve got one of the worst death rates in the world. Our economy has taken a massive hit.”

He told the Health Secretary that many key workers under the age of 50 in jobs such as teaching or the police, “who through the nature of their work are not at home”, will have been hoping that a first jab would have been available soon.

Government sources told The Telegraph on Saturday that everyone over 40 should be offered their first Covid vaccine by Easter, with a “bumper boost” to supplies allowing the programme to rapidly expand this week.

Ashworth highlighted that a minister said last week “there’s no reason why we can’t be optimistic” when discussing the prospect of vaccinating all adults by the end of June, and referred to some areas offering jabs to those aged over 40.

“We understand why there will be delays in supply, of course we understand that. But this is not fantastic news and nor frankly is it expected news,” the Shadow Health Secretary argued, adding that it would be a “surprise to many”.

“He didn’t mention Moderna supplies today. I understand that supplied from Moderna will start in April,” Ashworth also told MPs. “Is there any indication that if Moderna supplies come on stream that new appointments can be offered?”

Moderna expects to deliver its batch of vaccines to the UK next month. The jab produced by the US biotech company was the third to be approved, in January this year, by the UK regulator. It works works in a similar way to the Pfizer vaccine.

Picking up on a commitment on second doses from Hancock in his statement, he asked the minister to make an “absolute guarantee” that all people will receive a second dose of the vaccine within the 12-week window set out by the government.

Under the roll-out programme, dose distribution will need to increase to 3.5 million per week from May to ensure that everyone under 50 is vaccinated by July. Ashworth asked whether Hancock is confident the supply issue will be fixed by May.

The Labour frontbencher also highlighted that Hancock had not mentioned NHS pay. “He claps NHS workers, he claps nurses, but he is introducing a real-terms pay cut for our NHS staff,” Ashworth told the Commons this afternoon.

He urged the Health Secretary to withdraw the pay cut and commit to implementing any recommendations of the independent pay review board, with funding provided in addition to that already announced by the government for the NHS.

“Throughout the vaccination programme, the pace of roll-out has always been determined by the availability of the supply. As I said in this House many times, supply is the rate-limiting factor,” Hancock told MPs in his statement today.

“The process of manufacturing vaccines is complicated and subject to unpredictability, and because we get supply out into the field so fast and run a highly lean delivery system changes in future supply schedules impact on the weekly availability.”

He added: “We are currently right now in the middle of some bumper weeks of supply. We’ve now reached the milestone of 25 million vaccinations within the first 100 days of roll-out, and we’ve therefore been able to open up invitations to all people aged 50 and above.”

Hancock reported that supply is “tighter” in April than in March, saying: “During April, around 12 million people… will receive their second dose. These second doses cannot be delayed as they have to be delivered within 12 weeks of the first dose.”

He said the restrictions on supply were as a result of safety checks concerning the stability of the vaccine and of a delay in delivery from the Serum Institute of India, which was thanked by Hancock for its contribution to the vaccine rollout.

The Health Secretary insisted that the government is on track to meet the targets it has already set, and added that “there will be no week in April with no first doses and no cancelled appointments as a result of supply issues”.

Ashworth accused Hancock of attempting to “downplay legitimate concerns” over the Covid vaccine roll-out after the NHS sent a letter to local health vaccinators warning of a “significant reduction in weekly supply” on Wednesday.

Faced with questions on the letter at a Covid press conference last night, the Health Secretary told those watching that the NHS regularly sends out “technical letters” on the supply of the jab and argued that it is “always lumpy”.

The correspondence received by the local health authorities earlier in the day told them that the reduction in supply is predicted to last for a period of four weeks “as a result of reductions in national inbound vaccines supply”.

Asked whether the reduction in supply will mean that people aged under 50 will have to wait an extra month to get their jab, Hancock reiterated the commitment that all adults will be able to receive a vaccine by the end of July.

This latest news on the Covid vaccine roll-out came hours after the government reported that the UK has now provided a first dose to more than 25 million people, with everyone over the age of 50 invited to come forward to get a jab.