Salisbury Cathedral was a mere new-build when people came to pray for deliverance from the Black Death.
Several centuries on it's giving hope against a modern plague.
Local GPs turned the transept into a pop-up vaccination clinic, while the people most vulnerable to COVID-19 queued in the cloisters for their turn.
It was impressively efficient. And it needs to be if the NHS is to hit the target of immunising almost 15 million people in the top four priority groups by mid-February.
The rollout is expected to step up another gear with the opening of seven more vaccination hubs next week.
But a hiccup in the supply of the Pfizer jab is a warning that deliveries of a biological product are by no means guaranteed.
The pharmaceutical company needs to temporarily turn off the taps at its facility in Belgium while it upgrades the production line to meet the global demand for doses.
It should mean vaccines for an extra 350 million people over the coming year.
But with the more transmissible Kent variant of the virus now spreading well beyond the UK, governments are understandably anxious.
The NHS has the Oxford vaccine as well of course.
But AstraZeneca is also still scaling up production, with the aim of reaching two million doses a week by the end of the month.
Even that may not be enough to meet demand. GPs in some areas have already immunised 90% of their patients over the age of 80 and want to move on to the over-70s.
The bottom line is that we need more vaccine suppliers - an insurance against production problems.
But Moderna won't start deliveries of its jab until April. That's too late for the big push to protect the 30m people over 50 who make up almost all the deaths and most of the hospital admissions.
There are more vaccines on the horizon. Janssen and Novavax are close to revealing whether their experimental jabs have protected volunteers against the virus in key clinical trials.
They'll then need to get safety approval from the UK medical regulator, so it could be well into the spring before their doses join the rollout.
Fingers crossed it won't be an issue.
If AstraZeneca can stay on track and Pfizer can successfully re-start its production lines, then the NHS should have the vaccine supplies it needs.
For now at least.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMikAFodHRwczovL25ld3Muc2t5LmNvbS9zdG9yeS9jb3ZpZC0xOS1zYWxpc2J1cnktY2F0aGVkcmFsLXByb3Zlcy10by1iZS1lZmZpY2llbnQtdmFjY2luZS1odWItbm93LXJvbGxvdXQtaXMtYWJvdXQtdG8tc3RlcC11cC1hbm90aGVyLWdlYXItMTIxODk4NDPSAZQBaHR0cHM6Ly9uZXdzLnNreS5jb20vc3RvcnkvYW1wL2NvdmlkLTE5LXNhbGlzYnVyeS1jYXRoZWRyYWwtcHJvdmVzLXRvLWJlLWVmZmljaWVudC12YWNjaW5lLWh1Yi1ub3ctcm9sbG91dC1pcy1hYm91dC10by1zdGVwLXVwLWFub3RoZXItZ2Vhci0xMjE4OTg0Mw?oc=5
2021-01-16 19:14:04Z
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