Business Continuity and the Pandemic Threat - Learning from COVID-19 while preparing for the next pandemic

CHAPTER 9: VACCINATIONS – A SILVER BULLET?

Vaccinations are nothing new. Edward Jenner (1749-1823) is recognised as being the founder of vaccinology, and he is credited with creating the smallpox vaccine in 1798.

Winding forward 200 years or so, 8 December 2020 was a ‘Red Letter’ day – a day of special significance – for all of humanity. The first approved COVID vaccination was administered outside of a controlled trial, heralding the start of the UK’s COVID vaccine roll-out programme. Other countries were swift to follow. But this does not present us with a panacea or licence to revert to pre-COVID practices either in our personal or professional lives. Indeed, the virus continues to spread, and new variants have been detected, too. However, ...