Richard J. Hatchett, MD, is Chief Executive Officer of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a partnership of public, private, philanthropic and civil organizations that will finance and co-ordinate the development of vaccines against high priority public health threats and vaccine platform technologies to respond rapidly to emerging infectious diseases with pandemic or epidemic potential.

UK March 6th 2020. The CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, CEPI, Dr Richard J Hatchett MD, explains the long-term dangers of the COVID-19 coronavirus, saying it’s the scariest outbreak he’s dealt with in his 20-year career.

This man warned the world on the 6th March and here we are on the 23rd of April. Personally, I decided to go back and have another look at this and having listened again, I am wishing that he was Scientific Advisor for the UK. ‘War is an appropriate analogy‘ to quote Dr. Hatchett and, based on the evidence so far, it makes sense to me. Over eighteen thousand deaths in the UK since the 6th March. He says that he thinks COVID-19 will be endemic on our planet forever. If the long awaited vaccine works maybe we can live with it but I think we shall have to adapt our lives according to COVID-19.

On 23rd February the UK government pledged 20 million pounds to CEPI to support them in their endeavour to find a vaccine for COVID-19.

Update on 6th May from Dr Hatchett. “We have said from the very beginning when we started our programs back in January that we thought if things went well that we could anticipate vaccines becoming more broadly available potentially within 12 to 18 months. Obviously, several months have passed since then. We are seeing progress with our programs. Three of the vaccines that we’re supporting are in clinical trials right now. I think the timelines that we laid out then are still realistic. Possibly by the end of the year we might see some small amounts of vaccine becoming available but it’s hard to see how those timelines could be advanced much more quickly than that.

Today’s death toll is 616 hospital deaths reported in the UK in the last 24 hours making a total of 18,730 lives lost between the 6th March and today the 23rd April.

How long, I wonder, will I be reporting the daily deaths before it becomes the norm.