Matt Hancock : inspiration of UK vaccine strategy by Matt Damon’s movie

Matt Hancock also thought that Matt Damon's movie gave him “insight” into potential international vaccine pressures.

The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, accepted that Contagious had inspired his approach to the country’s vaccine roll-out. He even responded with a laugh and added that the film was not the primary source of his strategy. But gave him that there would be a global scramble for any Uk vaccine.

Mr Hancock overruled advice and ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine rather than 30 million, insisted. He claimed that he wasn’t going to settle for less.

Matt Hancock : inspired by Matt Damon’s movie for UK vaccine strategy

Later he added that in the film: it showed the moment of highest stress around the vaccination programme is not, in fact before it’s rolled out. But when it’s the scientists and manufacturers working at a pace. Afterward, there is a huge row about the order of priority.

He told, “Not only in this country did I insist that we ordered enough for every adult to have their two but also we asked for that clinical advice on that prioritisation very early and set it out in public so that there was no big row about the order of priority.”

Matt Hancock also thought that the film gave him “insight” into potential international vaccine pressures. Those were based on the advice of very serious epidemiologists.

“So, one of the things I did early (on), insisted that when we had the Oxford vaccine, and we backed it from the start and that was great, I insisted that UK production protects people in the UK in the first instance. And, as the UK Health Secretary, that is my duty,” he added.

Then he explained; that at the same time the government is making it available at cost to the rest of the world. Not enough people give AstraZeneca credit for that. Other vaccine companies are making tens of billions of pounds from their vaccines.