Kate Bingham: UK isn’t prepared for the next pandemic, says ex-vaccine chief
The UK government has missed chances to maximise vaccine manufacturing capacity and has no strategic plan for research that could help prevent another pandemic, Kate Bingham, the former head of the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce has warned
Health
14 October 2022
Kate Bingham led the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce Steven May / Alamy
The UK has missed key opportunities to prepare for the next pandemic says Kate Bingham, the former head of the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce.
The government is no longer steering vaccine research and development to prioritise new technologies that could be strategically vital and has missed chances to maximise manufacturing capacity in the UK, Bingham tells New Scientist.
“We definitely have more capacity now than we used to,” says Bingham. But she still brands the current facilities “inadequate”.
The former “vaccine tsar” …