AT tragic times like this, it is easy to be critical especially of the powers that be, but I guess one has to give the UK, the government, the NHS and all those involved in the vaccine roll out a well earned pat on the back.
OK, on the one hand the ongoing argument over summer holidays is smudging the issues, but the global picture is getting people vaccinated and, as of yesterday morning, some 13 million people had been vaccinated in the UK and that figure will have risen even more by the time this newspaper came off the print press earlier this morning. The Germans did not like the fact that the UK, was able to get the vaccination programme moving fast and questioned the effectiveness of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca - maybe they are still smarting over Brexit, politicians can be a strange breed.
But, while EU states argue with Brussels over why the roll out is taking so long and not enough vaccines are being made available, The World Health Organization has backed the Oxford vaccine and stated that it can be used in people aged over 65, which some countries have advised against - including Spain which is having a nightmare with its vaccination programme. Even in the Balearics, the goal posts and groups are changed every other day as they juggle the vaccines. The EU has again failed to step up in the war against Covid.