The long-running Covid inquiry has already looked at pandemic planning and the impact on the NHS. This week, though, it opened hearings into the vaccine rollout across the UK, from take-up of the jabs, to their safety, to the way they were marketed to the public.
Dr Helen Wall, a GP from Bolton, saw the shift in vaccines attitudes over the pandemic first-hand.
In May 2021 the town became the centre of national attention; Covid infections more than quadrupled in three weeks driven by the new Delta variant. A huge vaccine drive was ordered with army medics staffing mobile units. Dr Wall led the rollout, as clinical director of the local NHS commissioning board.
“People were coming out and making tea and coffee for people in the line,” she says. “There was this real feeling of camaraderie.”