Government aims to vaccinate 12 million people by middle of February. With the NHS struggling, Robin McKie asks whether it is fast enough

There have been incredible scientific breakthroughs in the past 12 months. Never before have vaccines been conceived, developed, tested and approved at this speed. But with the NHS nearing breaking point and after days of alarming numbers of Covid-related deaths, this week there was a new urgency in the government’s vaccination efforts.

The Observer’s science editor, Robin McKie, tells Anushka Asthana that scientists are working round the clock in labs to manufacture doses of the vaccine and that after high-profile problems with test-and-trace systems, there can be no excuses for botching the rollout of the vaccine.

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