Report comment

@Henry: Social distancing in hospitals exacerbates the issue but it is not the bottle-neck. Most intensive care consultants either are or were trained as anaesthetists. There are only so many of them and only so much oxygen to go around, therefore only so many beds that can handle severe covid patients. Moreover, the anaesthetists cannot be in theatre and on the ward at the same time - something has to give - elective work or critical care - what's your choice?

Get the reliance on critical care and oxygen down and that anaesthetist and oxygen capacity is now free to restart elective surgery. At this stage you're right, infection control (social distancing) capacity will still be lower than it was pre-covid but then it was all last summer and we weren't locked down then so there is no reason to believe we will be locked down in the future.

If ever there is an excess availability of vaccine I'm sure you can talk with your GP about the strengths and weaknesses and choose the best one. Until such a time it is Hobson's choice because that's all they can get to you. If you want true capitalism and choice then pay for it direct but I suspect private companies are down the list of priority buyers. In fact, it were left to "true" capitalism then there would be no vaccine as no company would have taken on the risks that were involved, certainly not in the timescales involved. Governments paid up front and took all the risk.

No-one living in the UK as their country of residence votes for Trump or Biden. The NHS serves people of the UK with most of the interest here for the NHS in England. I fail to see the relevance of politicians in the USA? Similarly, I struggle to see the connection to climate-change.