THE Queen’s Covid jab is a shot in the arm for the whole nation.
With one swift action, she has done more to reassure Brits that the vaccine is safe than any number of expert pronouncements.
It is not the first time the 94-year-old monarch has been called upon to lead the way in times of trouble.
Like her “we will meet again” speech, the personal gesture comes as the country faces one of its bleakest moments. But it also points to our escape route from the pandemic’s clutches.
And fittingly it is believed she was given the Oxford-developed AstraZeneca vaccine, which the PM has hailed as “a triumph of British science”.
We can only hope that officials follow the Queen’s shining example.
NHS pen-pushers are failing to match her pioneering spirit and are bogged down in red tape. While volunteers keen to help give jabs fill in lengthy questionnaires to meet Whitehall’s tick-box culture, the virus runs amok.
The UK’s huge death toll must wake them up to the fact lives depend on vaccinations more than diversity quotas.
Our hospitals are at breaking point and reports from the front line are harrowing.
PROTECT THE VULNERABLE
The Government is pinning its hopes on three measures: rolling out vaccinations at speed, regular tests for key workers and enforcing the lockdown.
But the whole establishment needs to work faster to protect the vulnerable and then those who have to go out to work.
So we welcome new efforts to protect key workers by giving them free tests when they clock on.
It is these lower-paid staff, from hospital porters to supermarket stackers and bus drivers, who keep the country going.
Keeping them healthy must be a higher priority than slapping fines on people who drive a couple of miles for a walk.
Her Majesty’s self-sacrifice and sense of duty should be an example to us all.
Now the rest of them need to follow her example – and get on with the jab.
Ploddy ridiculous
IT SOMETIMES seems like the police forces of this country have lost the plot.
Once they devoted resources to solving crime. Now they are obsessed with politically-correct box-ticking.
West Midlands cops have been named as among the worst in the UK for failing to record or crack down on offences.
So what do they do? They lavish £180,000 on meaningless woke jobs.
Home Secretary Priti Patel must get a grip on these forces — before this farce leaves criminals laughing at us.
