There’s a great piece in the Guardian on the influence that the 2011 Matt Damon movie, Contagion, has had on the government’s approach to COVID – a story that was first covered by SkyNews.

Under the heading “How Matt Hancock’s obsession with Matt Damon film drove UK’s vaccine strategy” Archie Bland writes that a surprising factor in the UK approach has been the HealthSec’s interest in the Matt Damon movie featuring a virus-ridden pig. He writes:

.. In particular, Hancock wanted his team to heed the movie’s depiction of the complexities of an international race for limited vaccine supply – and make sure that Britain was out in front. “He was constantly referring to the end of the film,” a former Department of Health and Social Care adviser told Sky. “He was always really aware from the very start, first that the vaccine was really important, second that when a vaccine was developed we would see an almighty global scramble for this thing.”

 Whether this reading is correct I don’t know but more than other governments, and certainly the EU, the UK has been working hard on vaccines.

Maybe it will be this that has Britain coming out of this better than other countries and gives the Tories another victory at the next general election.