IS it just me, or has nobody noticed the million people who failed to receive their second Covid jab? Twelve weeks ago our world-beating vaccine programme had delivered 17million first jabs. Yet today it has only delivered 16m second jabs.

There are a lot of numbers to come to grips with in a global pandemic but many important ones are being totally missed which is very bad news in a global pandemic.

Here in UK important numbers are too often missed. Our government seems more concerned with getting its story straight than tackling the problems we face. Only occasionally does the reality of it go on record. Boris’s “I’d rather be dead in a ditch” comment of 2019 was surely heart-felt but Boris couldn’t prevent the ensuing delay to Brexit.

Boris likely didn’t want to announce last month: “It is very, very important for everybody to understand that the reduction in hospitalisations, deaths and infections has not been achieved by the vaccination programme.”

Since then this “very, very important” message appears to be forgotten, replaced by the message that the Covid crisis is all over bar the shouting.

But there are still worrying numbers being overlooked, numbers that shouldn’t be overlooked. Infection and the case mortality rates among the elderly remain stubbornly high despite the first jab roll-out. The impact of their second jabs may soon overcome this situation but there is yet no guarantee.

So far, Covid has been very unkind to us here in UK. We should not get carried away in thinking it is now all over.

DR MARTIN RODGER

Bloxworth Road, Parkstone