Boris Johnson’s lockdown balancing act helped by vaccine – The Yorkshire Post says

They have to square the country’s health – and the current prevalence of Covid-19 in local communities – with the nation’s wealth as the pandemic continues to take its toll on the economy.

Act too hastily – and lives will be put at risk, and almost certainty lost. React too slowly – and even more firms will go out of business with a further rise in unemployment levels.

Yet the Prime Minister has one major advantage – the effectiveness of the pioneering Covid vaccines, including those developed by British scientists, and the unquestionable success of the immunisation programme to date.

Already 15 million people, including the elderly and vulnerable, have received at least one jab, and the next phase of the rollout, now underway, will include working-age people looking forward to a semblance of normality returning to both their lives and livelihoods.

But it does need to be remembered that the current strategy is unprecedented – Britain is the first major world economy to be vaccinating its population at such speed and, therefore, in a position to tentatively reopen the economy and civil society.

And, as such, Mr Johnson’s care, even angst, is understandable after pledging a “cautious but irreversible” approach to the easing of the lockdown while, at the same time, saying that no decisions have been made on whether all pupils can return to school at the same time.

He’s not answerable to the self-appointed armchair scientists who think they know best. He’s accountable to the country. But, if the PM does get the balance right, and ignores the siren calls from those pursuing their own agendas out of self-interest, Britain will finally be on the road to recovery.

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