If you're pinning your hopes on a Covid vaccine, here's a dose of realism | David Salisbury

A targeted immunisation programme may offer some protection, but it will not deliver life as normal'

David Salisbury is a former director of immunisation at the Department of Health

For those holding on to hope of an imminent Covid-19 vaccine, the news this weekend that the first could be rolled out as early as just after Christmas" will have likely lifted the spirits.

The UK's deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, reportedly told MPs a vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca could be ready for deployment in January, while Sir Jeremy Farrar, Sage scientific advisory group member and a director of the Wellcome Trust, has said at least one of a portfolio of UK vaccines could be ready by spring.