UK is not ready for coming pandemics, warns Vallance

Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientific adviser during the Covid pandemic, has warned that Britain is not prepared for another pandemic. The scientist called for future pandemics to be treated like potential wars, with as much focus going into planning for them as goes into the armed forces.

- ELLIE HARRISON

Speaking at the Hay Festival, during a panel chaired by The Independent's editor-in-chief Geordie Greig, Sir Patrick said: "Are we ready for another pandemic? The answer is no." 

He identified several key areas for improvement. "We need better surveillance to be able to pick these things up," he said. "We need to be much faster, much more aligned. And there are ways to do this - getting rapid diagnostic tests, rapid vaccines, rapid treatments - so that you don't have to go into the extreme measures that took place last time."

Vallance said that future pandemics, which he called "absolutely inevitable" need “continual government focus and attention", and yet "by 2023 the G7 had sort of forgotten about it".

He continued: "You can't forget about it in two years." Sir Patrick was the UK government's chief scientific adviser from 2018 until last year, helping to shape key coronavirus policy including lockdowns, as well as becoming a familiar face to millions on the televised Covid briefings alongside then PM Boris Johnson.