The provisional dates start with care homes early December and over 55's by mid January.
The language of 10 days ago was that the vaccine will likely be with us in early December; Boris's (or it may have been Hancock's) language yesterday "when we have the vaccine in a couple of months".
The Oxford jab is being queried with more tests now being run. I would be more quickly persuaded by a herd of unicorns than that the government will spend £30 per head much beyond the NHS when something for £2.63 may be on its way.
They have made a Horlicks of testing, a Horlicks of Lockdown - anyone remember the initial three weeks that turned into 4 months, we were told we needed a short, sharp lockdown until 2nd December yet millions of people emerge from this worse than before. Oh yes - and over summer we were going to get back to normal by November and definitely have a normal Christmas.
And all of this notwithstanding the fact that the risks of catching Covid are minimal and the risks of dying infinitesimal. 500000 (cases) divided by 66000000 = 0.76%; 55,000 (deaths of those who died with Covid) divided by 66000000 = 0.08% and funnily enough millions of people who buy a lottery ticket every week with longer odds hope it will be the one!
For this we have destroyed the economy and the as yet uncounted deaths and cases of intractable Ill health caused by Lockdown and the cessation of too many services in the NHS throughout lockdown are likely to be far more catastrophic.
One really would like to give Boris and the Sage Boys a Peter Pettigrew style wave and I say that as someone who has voted Conservative since 1979 but hasten to add I voted Hunt in the leadership campaign.