Former vaccines tsar describes ‘open warfare’ within UK government during Covid pandemic

There was “open warfare” between UK government departments during the pandemic, the former vaccines tsar has said, adding the failure to prioritise the needs of clinically vulnerable, immunocompromised individuals was ethically and morally wrong.

Dame Kate Bingham led the vaccine taskforce (VTF) – based in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) – between May and December 2020, and played a pivotal role in persuading the government to back the development of a portfolio of potential jabs, as well as securing contracts for millions of doses.

But Bingham has told the Covid inquiry that when initially establishing the remit of the VTF she discovered conflict.

“Therapeutics is obviously my background, so that is the natural area for me to have included in the remit,” she said. “What I did is what I would always do, which is to go and talk to the people involved, including in industry. And it was quite clear there was open warfare between BEIS and the Department of Health.”

The government did not make an advance purchase of Evusheld and it was never supplied, much to the consternation of charities who warned of the impact on immunocompromised individuals, although it was available privately.

Bingham said the direction of travel on Evusheld was clear to her before she left her post in December 2020, adding she vehemently disagreed with it.

“I felt very strongly that we were conducting a strategy that was not following the prime minister’s goals,” she said. “So the government was following a very clear two-tier strategy where the clinically vulnerable, immunocompromised patients were being deprioritised in favour of those who were able to receive vaccines. And I felt that was manifestly wrong, both ethically and morally, but also did not follow the goals that we’d been set, which was to protect the entire population.”

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Source: The Guardian, 21 January 2025