DEAR Editor – The Parliamentary Select Committees’ Report on the Government’s handling of the Covid pandemic provides a damming indictment of its failure to protect the British public from infection during the early stages of the virus.

Yes, it did commend the rapid rollout of the vaccine, however one does need to bear in mind that it was only able to achieve this because there was a vaccine actually available.

I was, therefore, extremely concerned to hear Dame Sarah Gilbert inform the audience at a session at the Cheltenham Literature Festival that her funding to carry on her important work on vaccine development has run out and she has no guarantee of any further money.

Can Britain afford to see her and her team disbanded given, as experts predict, the very high likelihood of the country being hit by another highly infectious virus in the future?

If say something akin to Ebola ever got into the country, then we would almost certainly consider the present pandemic as being a “walk in the park”.

Mike Levins

Worcester