WORLD leading vaccination production and the sense of suspended animation as lockdown continues were the topics covered by columnists in the newspapers.

The Daily Mail

Dominic Lawson said in our contribution to the treatment of this plague, Britain leads the world.

“The American economist, Tyler Cowen, whose Marginal Revolution blog is respected across the globe, wrote an article entitled ‘The UK’s response to Covid has been world class’,” he said. “The most important factor in the global response to Covid-19 has to be progress on the biomedical front and on that score the UK receives stellar marks. In fact, I would argue, it is tops in the world.’”

He said the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine was one of the most important achievements - a vaccine that can be kept in an ordinary refrigerator.

“I can do no better than end with the concluding words of Cowen, in his praise for the overall contribution of our scientists, researchers and, yes, policy-makers: ‘Critics of Brexit like to say that it will leave the UK as a small country of minor import. Maybe so. In the meantime, the Brits are on track to save the world.’”

The Daily Express

Leo McKinstry said it was impossible not to feel a sense of pride and admiration at Britain’s ‘remarkable’ vaccination programme.

“Ambitious in concept, heroic in purpose and magnificent in execution, it represents a vast collective effort on a scale never before seen in peacetime,” he said. “When the virus began its malignant spread last year, our country was derided as the sick man of Europe. Now we are the envy of the world.”

He said we could actually become one of the first countries to return to normal this summer.

“In the NHS’ epic performance, the service has made a mockery of the criticism that it is an outdated monolith.”

The Guardian

Emma Brockes said, with more than 370,000 vaccinated in New York, things were undoubtedly looking up.

“As with every anticipated turning point of the last year, the hardest thing about all this is the waiting,” she said. “The sense of suspended animation has either gone on too long, or the number of raised and dashed hopes been too high.”

She said the adrenaline of the first waves had worn off and most of us are running on empty.

“In the US, this feeling has only been hardened by the political crisis and the knowledge that, for all the relief of an incoming Biden administration, the forces unleashed by Trump aren’t going away,” she added.

“And while this year of the pandemic will, surely, be better than the last, it is perhaps easier to weather the first flush of a crisis than beat out time in its dying days. Make good use of this time by somehow making a virtue of the drag of the days.”