The leader of Britain's successful Covid vaccination programme has accused health officials of dismantling a critically important database, set up to aid Covid vaccine trials.
Dame Kate said that all the talk about the UK becoming a serious science superpower was bollocks. People don't care. If you want to make our research strong, you don't dismantle what's already in place.
A decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Research to insist that volunteers who have already signed up to a national database of individuals willing to take part in medical research must now go through a complex, three-stage verification process to reapply to stay in the program.
The database was set up in the spring of 2020 so that the UK had a pool of volunteers who were ready and waiting to enroll in trials once the Covid vaccine had been developed.
About 50,000 of the 550,000 people who signed up were used in 18 different vaccine trials. It was really effective.
When the scheme was established, a clause was added that asked volunteers if they would agree to take part in medical trials that did not involve Covid research. The vaccine task force created an enormously valuable resource for the nation, according to the woman who was made a Dame.
She said that the bureaucratic hurdles they had to overcome were huge. Everyone on the database has been told that they will have to re-register in a complex process which involves three separate steps.
After that, previous volunteers will be able to register again.
She said that she had gone through the re- registration process herself and found it difficult and confusing.
She said it was a monumental way to lose a lot of people from the database.
Half a million people were willing to participate in all kinds of medical research. There is no way that many people will sign up again. It is not a good use of resources.
Bingham was praised for her work in making sure that the UK had enough Covid vaccine in the middle of the Pandemic. She was critical of the civil service culture when she was asked to lead the vaccine task force.
Civil servants are focused on process not outcome. There are simpler ways to keep those volunteers on the database. We should invest in research infrastructure and not take it apart.
There was little relevant scientific and business experience across government, a culture of under performance and a distrustful relationship between government and the bioscience industry according to a speech last year.
The UK was still not out of the woods when it came to dealing with the Covid Pandemic. She has argued that current vaccines do not provide long-term protection.
To be prepared for the new variant that are likely to appear over the coming months and years we need to continue testing and developing new formats. People who have already said they will help should not be lost. It just doesn't seem right.
It was important that individuals be asked to give fresh consent for any new volunteer service in order to create a new and better registry to help people with all conditions according to theNIHR.
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