Former Vaccine Taskforce Chair calls for fundamental reset in Government systems and approach if the UK is to be prepared for the next pandemic

In the annual Romanes Lecture at Oxford University this evening Kate Bingham will:

• tell the inside story and approach of the Vaccine Taskforce, detailing obstacles in Government and Whitehall that were barriers to the vaccine procurement success.
• call for scientific expertise to be embedded in government decision-making, recommend an overhaul of the civil service to focus on outcomes rather than process, suggest improvement of government and business relations and propose the appointment of a permanent pandemic security expert.
• flag missed opportunities for future pandemic preparedness.
• discuss the implications for the UK and low income countries of the Government’s cancellation of the Valneva vaccine deal.

Dame Catherine Elizabeth Bingham, DBE, who as Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce last year oversaw the UK’s efforts to find and manufacture Covid-19 vaccines will be delivering this year’s Romanes Lecture. Established in 1892, the Romanes Lecture is the annual public lecture of Oxford University. Previous speakers include Baroness Hale of Richmond, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Gordon Brown.

In her talk titled ‘From wartime to peacetime: lessons from the Vaccine Taskforce’ Kate will discuss how the UK’s response to the pandemic has evolved since May 2020 last year when she was appointed, throughout her tenure to the end of last year and since. On 8 December 2020 the UK started COVID-19 vaccinations – the first Western country to do so.

In the speech Kate will call for a fundamental reset in how the Government uses scientific, analytical and manufacturing expertise and work with industry, for the benefit of our future health and prosperity. Kate Bingham will say;

‘The government was woefully unprepared for this pandemic. There will be more pandemics in the future, and they could be more lethal – like Ebola which kills 90% of those infected.

“Across government there is a devastating lack of skills and experience in science, industry, commerce and manufacturing – the very skills needed to bring an unproven medicine from the laboratory safely and effectively into people’s arms.

“Currently there are very few with science or operating backgrounds at all levels of government. If you lack scientific knowledge, then you cannot make the right decisions about science and medicine. We need to embed science into policymaking, at every level of government.

‘The machinery of government is dominated by process, rather than outcome, causing delay and inertia. There is an obsessive fear of personal error and criticism, a culture of groupthink and risk aversion that stifles initiative and encourages foot-dragging. Government must be braver. It needs to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset in which people are rewarded for flair and results.’

‘The government must do better. It needs to take a positive, proactive approach to the life sciences industry. The government lacks the knowledge, and interest to detect the differences between money-grabbing opportunism and valuable corporate behaviour. This leads to some damaging decisions.’

'We invest in our conventional forces, we recognise the importance of developing intelligence and we plan for a vast array of difference scenarios, yet we our neglecting the most likely threat to the nation - the next pandemic. We must act now to build our defences against a future catastrophe. Another war is coming, let’s make sure we have the right people, with the right skills to fight it.’

Kate Bingham undertook the unpaid role of Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce from May 2020 to late December 2020. Reporting directly to the Prime Minister, she led a team of world-class experts from across industry, science, academia and government with the shared purposed of finding and manufacturing COVID-19 vaccine/s.

In her lecture Kate points to the outstanding contributions made to vaccine development by Professors John Bell, Sarah Gilbert, Cath Green, Adrian Hill, Tessa Lambe, Andy Pollard and Gavin Screaton, and the work of Peter Horby and Martin Landray leading the Covid Recovery Trial.