Vaccinations: "Boris Johnson needs a victory to boost the morale of the British and restore his image"

Jeremy Stubbs is Chairman of the British Conservative Party in Paris, Affiliate Professor at ESCE International Business School in Paris, and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Causeur.

He is the author of

Management for Dummies in 50 key concepts

FIGAROVOX.

- The UK started the vaccination process on Tuesday December 8 with a 90-year-old woman.

What is the Johnson government's strategy for the coming months and can it work?

Jeremy STUBBS.

-

The United Kingdom is the first country to authorize and distribute the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.

Initially, the vaccination process will target people over 80, front-line medical staff, and nursing assistants in EPHADs.

Her Majesty the Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, will be vaccinated but will have to wait their turn like the other seniors.

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The UK government has ordered a total of 40 million doses that will be used to immunize 20 million people out of a total population of nearly 67 million.

The doses will be delivered in stages: 4 million are expected by the end of December.

The vaccine in question presents a logistical challenge: delivered in cases of 975 doses, it should normally be stored at a temperature between minus 60 ° C and minus 80 ° C and therefore does not lend itself easily to widespread distribution.

Each vaccinated person should receive two doses 21 days apart.

Therefore, in England, the current inoculation campaign is based on a network of around 50 hospitals which serve as regional vaccination centers.

Subsequently, medical offices and sports centers will be operated.

With his handling of the pandemic, Boris Johnson needs a victory to boost British morale and restore his image

The British government expects to be able soon to authorize the rival vaccine, that of AstraZeneca-Oxford University, which costs less, is easier to manufacture in mass and whose distribution does not present the same logistical difficulties.

Although it appears to provide more durable protection over time against Covid-19, the degree of effectiveness of this vaccine has not yet been determined, varying between 70% and 90% depending on the dosage.

In the long term, the government hopes to make it the mainstay of its inoculation campaign: 100 million doses have already been ordered and 4 million have been delivered.

The government plans to roll out both vaccines at the same time.

In the UK the health service is not at all as decentralized as in Germany, although it is divided into four separate authorities - corresponding to England, Scotland, Wales and the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland - the size of the population residing in England is such that the degree of decentralization remains relatively limited.

What are the political stakes for Boris Johnson?

The UK has the highest death toll in Europe with over 61,000.

With his handling of the pandemic, Boris Johnson needs a victory to boost the morale of the British and restore his image.

According to the most recent polls, the Conservatives and Labor are practically neck and neck, while BoJo's personal rating has fallen to 46%.

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Yet the most immediate threat to him comes from a sling from his own MPs who are impatient with the continued restrictions.

On December 2, general confinement in England was replaced by a three-zone system applying measures of varying severity (the other three countries have their own system).

The toughest - and most unpopular - measures are in place in the north of England, home to those traditionally Labor constituencies that elected Tory MPs in the last ballot.

The big challenge for Boris Johnson is to retain these voters in a lasting way.

The possibility of leaving the EU without a trade agreement makes the need for a return to normal economics even more imperative.

Is this speed of execution by the British really due to Brexit, as some members of the Conservative Party claim?

The question of the role of Brexit in the expedited authorization of the vaccine has raised controversy.

Health Minister Matt Hancock said the UK has been able to free itself from both the tutelage and laborious bureaucracy of the EU.

His German counterpart, Jens Spahn, responded by pointing out that the vaccine was in part a European product.

The director of the British equivalent of the European

, insisted that the authorization had been made under European law, still in force in the United Kingdom until on December 31, which allows Member States to take emergency action.

The imminent departure of the EU has encouraged the UK to take an initiative that other member states have not dared to take

Although Downing Street did not confirm Hancock's assertion, a tweet from Boris Johnson on the day the vaccination program was launched drew a comment from Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre De Croo: "

."

What is certain is that the imminent departure of the EU has encouraged the UK to take an initiative that other Member States have not dared to take.

Are there any coercive government measures planned to encourage people to get vaccinated?

Is there a distrust of the English in the face of this vaccine or on the contrary a feeling of relief?

According to studies, the British population is not particularly suspicious of vaccines - much less than the French, for example.

The general atmosphere of the pandemic has nevertheless favored, on the one hand, the spread on social media of the conspiratorial delusions of opponents of any form of vaccination (the "

"), and on the other, the growing caution. the public who need to be reassured about the real effectiveness of vaccines developed and authorized within an unprecedented timeframe.

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Nonetheless, the government has no intention of forcing its citizens to be inoculated, with Boris Johnson telling parliament: "

."

He prefers an awareness campaign involving public figures and people.