Matt Hancock tells LBC how film Contagion alerted him to global vaccine scramble

3 February 2021, 08:38 | Updated: 3 February 2021, 13:28

Matt Hancock inspired by Contagion in vaccine strategy

By Patrick Grafton-Green

Matt Hancock has explained to LBC how he learned lessons from the film Contagion when planning how the coronavirus vaccine would be rolled out in the UK.

The Health Secretary said the Hollywood film, starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet and Jude Law, inspired him to be quick to order enough doses for the UK public and plan an early priority list.

He told Nick Ferrari that he "wouldn’t say that film is my primary source of advice on this", but added: "I knew when the vaccine came good... that the demand for it would be huge and that we would need to be ready to vaccinate every adult in the country and I wasn’t going to settle for less.”

READ MORE: One dose of Oxford Covid jab can 'reduce transmission of coronavirus by two thirds'

READ MORE: Don't go shopping in variant-risk areas if you don't have to, Hancock tells LBC

Contagion, a 2011 thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh, tells the story of public health officials and medical experts scrambling to contain a new deadly virus and introducing a vaccine to halt its spread.

The fictional virus, which kills between 25 and 30% of those who catch it, is caused by an interaction between a bat and a pig.

Mr Hancock said: “In the film it shows that the moment of highest stress around the vaccine programme is not in fact before it’s rolled out, when actually it’s the scientists and the manufacturers working together at pace, it’s afterwards when there is a huge row about order of priority.

“So not only in this country I insisted that we order enough for every adult to have their two doses but also we asked for that clinical advice on the prioritisation very early and set it out in public I think for the first time... in August or September so that there was no big row about the order of priory.

Matt Hancock: The vaccine supply is lumpy

"Instead, we ask the clinicians and we do it on the basis of how we save most lives most quickly."

Government data up to January 31 shows 9,790,576 jabs have been given in the UK so far, 9,296,367 of which were first doses and 494,209 were second doses.

The seven-day rolling average of first doses given in the UK is now 388,971.

Based on the latest figures, an average of 407,402 first doses of vaccine would be needed each day in order to meet the Government's target of 15 million first doses by February 15.

However, the daily rate has been increasing ahead of the deadline in two weeks' time.

Data for January 30 showed 598,389 people were vaccinated in the UK.

More Latest News

See more More Latest News

Greece Confidence Vote

Greece’s government survives no-confidence motion called over rail disaster

A council has had to apologise following the incident.

Fury as parents offered version of school class photo without complex needs pupils

Conjoined twin who shot to fame with sister on The Oprah Winfrey Show marries army veteran in private ceremony

Conjoined twin who shot to fame with sister on The Oprah Winfrey Show marries army veteran in private ceremony

Israel Palestinians UN Security Council

Russia ‘abolishes’ monitoring of sanctions on North Korea with UN veto

Firefighters at the scene of a bus crash in Limpopo

Bus plunges from bridge in South Africa and erupts into flames, killing 45 and leaving child, 8, as lone survivor

Israel Palestinians Britain Aid

UN top court orders Israel to open more land crossings into Gaza

Music-Green Day UN

Green Day to headline UN-backed global climate concert

Exclusive
Starmer has vowed to resurrect Boris Johnson's 'Levelling Up' policy

Failure to ‘level up’ Britain would be ‘catastrophic’, Wes Streeting admits, as Starmer vows to resurrect Johnson policy

Border Force staff will walk out from April 11

Hundreds of Border Force officers at Heathrow Airport to stage four-day strike

Stephen Bear was ordered to pay Ms Harrison £5,000.

Disgraced reality TV star Stephen Bear ordered to pay £27,000 over revenge porn conviction or face nine months in jail

Sam Bankman-Fried

FTX founder Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison for crypto fraud

Exclusive
Covid no excuse for death of Finley Boden who was murdered by drug-addled parents, child protection chief says

Covid no excuse for death of Finley Boden who was murdered by drug-addled parents, child protection chief says

France Valentino

Former Gucci designer Alessandro Michele named Valentino creative director

Know your limits this summer, Brits have been warned

‘Know your limits’: Brits heading to the Euros this summer warned against drinking ‘too much German beer’

Russia Shooting

Russia arrests another suspect in concert hall attack that killed 143

Sam Bankman-Fried has been jailed for 25 years for a $8bn crypto fraud

'Crypto King' Sam Bankman-Fried jailed for 25 years for stealing billions of dollars from his customers