@Oaktree55
I actually think the U.K. have done a pretty good job of sourcing vaccines. The vaccines preordered were spread over a sensible variety of technologies (both old and new) and purchased in pretty large numbers. Given that at the time no one knew what, if anything, would work the approach seems pretty reasonable.
If you are looking purely at efficacy then it may be that Pfizer is better (although with such limited data it's impossible to properly assess) but its instability presents huge logistical challenges which cannot be ignored. It's been said before but I think it's important that we don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good.
Is Oxford the right solution for now? Will we, with the benefit of hindsight look back and think we should have taken a different course? I don't know to be honest. I think we're probably in a situation however where doing something is better than doing nothing. Eventually someone, somewhere has to make a decision to do something and pick a course and hope it's the right one.
Every week that goes past as things stand huge amounts of harm are being caused by both covid and the measures taken to respond to covid. I don't think we can afford to let a decent opportunity to make a difference go past on the off chance that a better solution is just around the corner. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush as my Nan would say!