It did not take long for a dampener on the PM's celebrations. His first new year storm is a controversy over vaccinations.
Once again we have promises from health secretary for England Matt Hancock - will he ever learn? - of a million doses a day, only to be falling short.
An exuberant Hancock says the NHS has risen to this 'enormous task’. It has to!
It is not just the warning from England’s chief medical officer that the shortage of vaccines ‘will last for months’ but criticism about the way the operation has begun that is worrying.
Their grumble is on two fronts: the government’s decision to speed up the programme by deferring the second dose from three weeks to three months and the red tape that is said to be stifling recruitment of medical staff volunteering to give injections.
GPS say the deferral is unfair to patients who have been told at short notice that their second appointment is delayed. Many retired doctors and nurses who volunteered to help say they have 21 separate documents to deal with including training in counter terrorism, counter racism, human rights and data protection.
As usual, the army are being called up. They say they can muster up to 250 mobile teams that could give 250,000 jabs a week.
A Queen Mary University doctor told the BBC a bottleneck in vaccine is preventing the target being met.
To add fuel to the fire, Israel reports today it has given over one million doses, one in 12 of its people.
Not an auspicious start for the UK in 2021.
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