Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

UK COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Not Enough To Tackle Pandemic, Gradual Easing Needed, Lancet Study Warns

UK COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Not Enough To Tackle Pandemic, Gradual Easing Needed, Lancet Study Warns

Virologists from one of Britain's top medical journals conducted the analysis via a timeline from January 2021 to early 2024, before real-world data from vaccine rollout studies had been released.

The UK is unlikely to reach herd immunity via its COVID-19 vaccination rollout for adults without a cautious easing of lockdown measures, the Lancet Infections Diseases journal said on Thursday.

Britain should gradually release control measures along with an effective a vaccine rollout with high protection against COVID-19 to reduce future outbreaks, it said.

Such modelling suggested that vaccine rollouts for adults alone were "unlikely" to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the UK, University of Warwick professor Matt Keeling said in a statement.

“We also found that early sudden release of restrictions is likely to lead to a large wave of infection, whereas gradually easing measures over a period of many months could reduce the peak of future waves," he added.

The UK's vaccine rollout programme had been a "huge" success along with the UK government's roadmap to easing restrictions, the Lancet said, adding the measures were a "cause for optimism". But test and trace measures, hand hygiene and mask-wearing in high risk areas, among others, were also necessary "for some time", it added.

The UK currently ranks third globally for the number of vaccine doses administered, the study noted.

The modelling also assumed a vaccine uptake rate of 95 percent in people aged 80 and older, 85 percent from those aged 50 to 79 years and 75 percent for people aged 18 to 49 years, namely via phase 3 trial data from Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines in the UK's rollout programme.

Removing all restrictions before the UK's jab rollout had completed would likely lead to further waves of infections with "a substantial number of deaths", the study warned, adding even small rollbacks of measures could see large outbreaks.

A rollback of control measures in January 2022 would see 21,400 deaths due to COVID-19 if vaccines offer 85 percent efficacy, but would skyrocket to 96,700 with a 60 percent efficacy rate, it added.

The survey had suggested a higher level of protection against severe cases of the virus from Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca than previously assumed, University of Warwick's Dr Sam Moore said in a statement.

"This may reduce the size of future hospital admissions and deaths we estimated, making future waves more manageable for the health service. As for protection against infection, some preliminary findings have suggested that the vaccine does offer a level of protection against infection, but the exact level of protection offered by vaccines is still unclear," he said.

Dr Viola Priesemann from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation in Germany, who was not involved in the study, said that there were clear advantages to avoiding further waves of the pandemic via "wise" vaccine rollouts.

“The advantage of avoiding another pandemic wave is clear: less so-called long COVID-19, less quarantine, fewer deaths, and reducing the impact of the pandemic on societies and economies. Finally, more infections mean more scope for the spread and evolution of escape variants, which risk a major setback for any vaccination strategy, so avoiding this eventuality will be crucial,” he said in a statement.

To date, the UK has reported nearly 4.3m cases and over 126,000 deaths, according to figures from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×