by The UK is “really unsafe” from future pandemic threats, a leading academic has told MPs.
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said he was concerned that not enough work was being done to research the different viruses and bacteria that pose a threat.
Sir Andrew, whose team created the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 job during the pandemic, said there had already been “ten people” working on coronavirus vaccines before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
But “we’re nowhere near the start of that starting gun” for other microbes, he told the Science and Technology Committee.
“We already knew a lot about coronavirus and how to make vaccines for them – there were many years of research on coronavirus vaccines,” said Sir Andrew.
“One of the problems we have is most of those other microbes that are out there that could threaten us, we haven’t done any of that work.
“If it took 10 or 20 years to do the research and development… we’re nowhere near the beginning of that starting gun.
“I think that’s one of the areas of greatest concern … are we doing enough to look at the different families of viruses and bacteria that we already know are a threat but we don’t understand enough ?
“And that work requires years of investment to try to get it going.”
He added: “If you think about the defense against something unknown, which is obviously a really important way of thinking about pandemics, we don’t know when they’re going to happen – we’re pretty sure they’re going to happen again, they can. it could be in a year or it could be in 50 years.
“Then you think about other forms of defense that we have such as military defense… I think the Government’s figures are an investment of around £45 billion a year in defense – we recognize that we have to do things for peacetime, although hopefully that doesn’t need to be deployed.
“But in relation to pandemics we are putting a fraction of that, a small fraction of that in preparedness.
“And so to me, we’re really unsafe right now in terms of future pandemic threats, because we don’t have that knowledge base that you need to even start the gun like we did in 2020 – and even then it took 11 months to do. get a vaccine.”
Meanwhile the former chairman of the UK’s Vaccine Task Force launched a scathing attack on the Government, telling MPs that Ministers had almost “destroyed” the expert group’s work.
Dr Clive Dix, the former deputy chair of the task force who took over as chair in late 2020, said the UK had not contributed to the success of the task force, adding: “The reason the task force was set up was because it was not no infrastructure to work on. industry, academia and government to really pull together what we did… What I’ve seen since April 2021 is a complete demise of all the activities that made that thing work, gone Seriously.
“What we’ve seen is a whole list of incompetent decisions being made.”
He said the Government fought the success of the task force and then “destroyed almost everything that was going on”.
Dr Dix, who is now chief executive of C4X Discovery, said: “We have less resilience now because a lot of manufacturers have left the UK because of how badly they were treated at the tail end of the Vaccine Taskforce.”
He highlighted how the vaccine deal with French firm Valneva was terminated before the results of the clinical trial were even published, saying the decision “almost brought the company to its knees”.
Meanwhile Dr Dix criticized the UK for not having a “strong relationship” with British vaccine manufacturer GSK.
Asked whether the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Government have learned the right lessons, he said: “A small group of us running the Vaccine Task Force learned the lessons, and they were not given really into it never really. the Government’s current thinking.”
Dr Dix also criticized ministers for “shelving” key recommendations from the Vaccine Taskforce.
The committee also heard from experts behind the Lighthouse Laboratories – established to help with diagnostics during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak, chief scientist at Health Scotland who has been seconded to the Department of Health and Social Care to take over responsibilities for the Lighthouse Laboratories in 2020, said that “putting the Rosalind Franklin Covid Laboratory in Leamington Spa up for sale is a lost cause . opportunity”.
Professor Chris Molloy, chief executive of Medicines Discovery Catapult, who was director of the UK Lighthouse Labs network during the pandemic, said the UK needed to maintain potential laboratory space to “fight the next war”.
It comes as the UKHSA published its new Pathogen Genomics Strategy.
The five-year plan sets out how the UKHSA intends to “integrate genomics into all aspects of infectious disease control”.
UKHSA chief executive, Dame Jenny Harries, said: “UK experts in the field of pathogen genomics have played an important role in the pathogenic response to Covid-19 and pathogen genomics remains central to the national and international effort to keep the public safe from many other infectious diseases . disease threats, from tuberculosis to mpox and bird flu.
“We know it will become even more important in the coming years, and our new strategy will ensure UKHSA continues to be at the forefront of implementing this technology to keep our communities safe, save lives and protect livelihoods.”
