is almost 95% effective, according to early date from us company moderna. the world health organisation has welcomed the announcement but has warned against complacency. the american president—elect joe biden has said more people will die if he is not given access to the government's vaccine distribution plans. so far, the trump administration is not cooperating with the transition to a new leadership. sweden has announced it is to ban public events of more than eight people after a surge of new coronavirus cases. the country has so far imposed relatively minor restrictions to deal with the pandemic. a huge storm approaching nicaragua and honduras in central america has become a category five hurricane. iota is expected to make landfall on monday night. coastal areas have been evacuated.

hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are the journalist kate proctor, political editor of politics home and the broadcaster john stapleton. welcome back both of you. let's flip through some of the news. good news on the front page of the times. ‘vaccination rescue plan is given a fresh boost‘ is its headline after britain bought five million doses of the most promising coronavirus jab so far. the i calls the vaccine, by us firm moderna, a "new hope for an end to the pandemic". the independent calls it the ‘most effective yet‘ after early results suggseted the vaccine has an almost 95% efficacy rat. an almost 95% efficacy rate.

the vaccine is on the front page of the financial times too. they quote moderna's chief medical officer as saying the results are a ‘home run‘ for mrna technology. but as the guardian points out, the uk nearly didn't have access to the vaccine. the government bought 5 million doses today after initially opting out. the telegraph says ‘lockdown looms over christmas‘, after health secretary matt hancock said it was too early to know whether the current lockdown restrictions were working. there‘s better christmas news on the front of the mail, however, which says families with relatives in care homes will soon be able to visit their loved ones due to an expansion in testing. and that story is on the front of the mirror too, who say local

trials could be rolled out nationwide within weeks. right, welcome back, both of you. let‘s look at the times. vaccination rescue plan given a fresh busta. about this new moderna vaccine. this is another week of positive news when it comes to vaccines. you‘ve got this story that moderna has come up got this story that moderna has come up with a vaccine with a 90 pick —— 95% effective rate. slightly more effective than the pfizer vaccine and it‘s also easier to transport, so and it‘s also easier to transport, so there‘s lots of high hopes that there‘s going to be a vaccine that will be available in the uk to people and will be relatively easy to administer when there is an us of it. that could still be a few months

away —— enough of it. the pfizer one isa away —— enough of it. the pfizer one is a vaccine that could be coming on strea m is a vaccine that could be coming on stream sooner, and all of this has been about how much the uk has, how much its body, and we found out today that it ordered 5 million and initially, the moderna vaccine wasn‘t one the uk had orders for. i think there might be some questions around why the order was put in today. we might come to that in a bit more detail, butjohn, the deputy chief officers of the result was brilliant news. he speaks in a language even tv presenters can understand. it conveys the message very, very well. he said he would give it the mum test, etc. absolutely right. it is good news,

as kate says, it's more expensive than the pfizer one but you can store it in a much more ordinary fridge. he will be easier to transport and it's, according to the developers, it's something that is very effective with the over 65 's. 0ther very effective with the over 65 's. other people have been commenting on this saying they want to reserve judgement until after april when it comes to the uk. it's on the way, it's the second bit of good news in the matter of days. we waited a long time for it, haven't we? might be the oxford university astrazeneca and that is quite interesting because that is a quarter of the price of the pfizer and moderna vaccines, from what i‘ve read. but just picking up on this scramble as the guardian points out, the scramble for vaccines amid fears that britain may miss out on supplies. when we spoke a0 minutes

ago, you said it might create some problem for the government but matt hancock sort of brush that away a bit. saying we‘ve ordered 350 million doses, in terms of the timing as well. that's true and there are 100 million doses of the 0xford vaccine, so there are high hopes that that‘s going to significantly add to the uk supply. but this is the second one that come forward and actually, we didn‘t have an order in for it. we have that now but we did in this morning. i do think there is no questions asked about how i exactly this happen. it might be the maternal one might not be ready and time, so they were prioritising on the rack teens —— the moderna one. it‘s actually because the vaccination process in general and how it‘s been working,

it‘s all been there and question in the last couple of days. john, do you agree? do you think it‘s going to bea you agree? do you think it‘s going to be a political row or a clips by the next vaccine? i think it may eclipsed fairly quickly. kate is absolutely right in that the government did get involved —— didn't get involved. i was watching developments throughout the day, knowing i was going to be talking to you tonight, and they literally said they were in advanced talks with moderna. when they found out what was happening... that's the other favourite expression. then they announced 5 million doses, which is two and a half million people. but they won't stream until april and matt hancock, we weren't initially —— it's also true to say that the

government didn't join the —— it's also true to say that the government didn'tjoin the european union and its joint fun for vaccines in this time, so on that front, it's a bit off the mark. —— joint fund. but i think the bigger picture will be the one that people will be watching, that we have two vaccines on stream, although there safety still has to be copper brought on him and they still have to be approved before any of us a we have approved before any of us a we have a vaccine. i think last september. let‘s look at the story below that. concerns raised over number ten covid measures. i‘m sure it‘s a fact that this building is hugely in the public eye and i‘m sure these are rates similar to the rest of the country, but what i would say, some photographs emerge of these mps and meeting with the

prime minister although they safe socially distancing was maintained. i think you can look at those photographs and think those mps were not particularly standing two metres apart, and the other thing i don‘t quite understand is parliament has just really gone out of its way to make it completely covid secure as much as it can. now one person at the table at a time, and downing street appears to have a group of people in the same room as each other for 35 minutes and then you had several of them ending up self—isolating. it‘s such a vital time, no mp wants to be the way at this particular moment self—isolation —— in self—isolation. we don‘t have a great deal of time. ministers told the folly of the testing regime. talk us through the. this is a story that's been around for a while. people are saying why

is the prime minister isolating for two we e ks is the prime minister isolating for two weeks when he's already had a test, he's already had covid. he's very unlikely to get it again. one of these rapid tests could put them in the clear straightaway, which is being applied in other parts of the country as well. there is the view that actually, we're being over portioned in some cases and rapid tests and indeed the economy far better. just to the left of that, lockdown lose over christmas. matt hancock didn‘t actually say that, but it might not be the sort of liberal freer christmas that the government wants us all to have this december. yeah, he was quite clear that we‘ll just have to december. yeah, he was quite clear that we‘lljust have to see what december. yeah, he was quite clear that we‘ll just have to see what the numbers are, what the cases are doing up dude december the 2nd. although these very specific measures will be reviewed and won‘t continue in the phone there and there at the moment, there are discussions about this level being reintroduced —— in the form they

are. they‘re also talking about tier 3 plus, so they would need to find out a little bit more about that. but yes, matt hancock was very cautious compared to the language that boris johnson‘s cautious compared to the language that borisjohnson‘s used around the christmas period. it might be better news for people who have resident relatives and care homes of. . the broadcaster, i remember was relatives and care homes of. . the broadcaster, i rememberwas the agony people go through of not being able to see their relatives and care homes at all, and anywhere near those homes are at best, only being able to talk to them through a window or a screen. that now being eased, the government has given in and said yes, 0k, we will try the scheme in certain parts of the country where there is not a great deal of a problem with the virus.

nevertheless being carried out there whereby people have to go at —— undergo a test. the prospect, i think, you may be able to even hug or kiss your loved one in that care home by christmas. may be a long shot, but a nice thought. it's on both the mail in the mirror. it might be on the express as well. but do you think this is a problem that perhaps the rules haven‘t been that perhaps the rules haven‘t been that clear and some care homes have been a gold plating what they were meant to be doing. so, much stricter plans for lockdown for the residents and they needed? a lot of this is to do with insurance. it‘s been very,

very difficult for managers to basically operate and try and make this work, so what we have seen is ca re this work, so what we have seen is care homes absolutely going to really, really cautious levels, likely seen lots of these very sad pictures through the glass. some ca re pictures through the glass. some care homes have created these pods, but there might still be a perspex screen. care but there might still be a perspex screen. ca re homes but there might still be a perspex screen. care homes have really, really been very, very strict and i think this is going to be really, really welcome news, particularly forfamilies who really welcome news, particularly for families who haven‘t been able to see their relatives for such a long time. it sounds like there is going to be a little bit of easing off, but of course as ever, a lot of this need to come with funding and the national care has made a lot of noise, say if you are going to have these tests and people coming in, we need to make sure we have the funding to roll it out properly. 0k,

i think we lostjohn, i‘m afraid. let‘s just turn to the times, because another issue that has been obsessing a lot of the papers is the netflix crown series. here, a picture of captain sir tom moore who raised 32 million for nhs charities. peter morgan, the creator, has defending making up certain scenes made up in his head. he said... can you hear me, john? yes. peter morgan saying he made up certain scenes in the crown. is this unforgivable artistic licence? of course it artistic licence. it was a bad call on my part. come on, it's based on fact but it's trauma. it's billed as drama. he knows these

conversations took place, i think that's a matter of public record. there apparently was a slight disagreement between the two of them. but he made up the conversation because it's a drama. what about you, kate? conversation because it's a drama. what about you, kate ?|j conversation because it's a drama. what about you, kate? i watch this this evening and i think it‘s really obvious, to be honest, when he had imagined scenes because they‘re very, very dramatic. what was written in the letter, i found very, very dramatic. what was written in the letter, ifound it relatively hard to believe that‘s what was said. they‘re also very emotional scenes between charles and philip, | emotional scenes between charles and philip, ifound emotional scenes between charles and philip, i found that hard to believe. i think you have to take it for the trauma and there are lots of opinions on the portrayal of margaret thatcher. it all helps with viewing figures. my goodness. the paper isjust viewing figures. my goodness. the paper is just completely packed with it. i'm paper is just completely packed with it. i‘m afraid we are out of time, but really nice to have you look back on again. kate and john, good

to see you and thank you for taking us to see you and thank you for taking us through the second look. bye—bye, thanks a lot. so, as we‘ve been reporting, another vaccine has reported positive early results today. moderna says its jab is nearly 95% effective at protecting against coronavirus. that is 5% more than pfizer last week. health secretary matt hancock says the uk has ordered five million vaccines, enough for 2.5 million people, but it won‘t be available until the spring. april, we hear. here with me to answer all your questions is the immunologist professor robin shattock, who is head of immunity at imperial college london. thank you forjoining us. we have had loads of different

questions about this, another piece of good news, a week after pfizer. let‘s start with this one from christopher. as most vaccines take ten years, how can we trust one that takes ten months? that‘s a great question and i can understand people being concerned by thinking there might be short cuts in the process. it‘s important to remember that most of these technologies have been being developed over a period of several years, and what has taken place is the clinical component has been compressed, so these vaccines are still being tested in the same numbers of individuals, tens of thousands, as would be required for any vaccine, so there has been no short cut. it‘s just been done in a compressed timescale. there hasn‘t ever been a coronavirus vaccine before, is there? correct, and the reason is, for sars and miss, the disease

for sars and mers, the disease naturally went away before the vaccine could be developed. this person says, is it possible for any of the vaccine is to have long—term consequences we don‘t know about yet? it‘s impossible to exclude that there might be very rare long—term consequences, although this is pretty unlikely. if you look at the health warnings with any medicines you are taking, classified as common, uncommon and rare, and rare is something that occurs between, in up to one person per 10,000 individuals. these vaccines have been studied in 30 to a0,000 individuals, and we know that they are already shown to be safe. these particular two vaccines, once injected, they are completely eliminated from your system within about three days, so you might have an acute side effect, like a sore arm or even feeling a bit feverish,

but the potential for any long—term consequences is very unlikely and greatly reduced, compared to the potential long—term consequences of contracting covid—19. once you have been vaccinated, it does what it needs to do in the first three days, even though you go back for a booster three orfour weeks later? absolutely, essentially its genetic material that gets cleared absolutely, essentially it‘s genetic material that gets cleared from your body very quickly, so it comes in, it stimulates the immune system, it disappears and is cleared, so the chance that it will have a long—term consequence is very unlikely, and so much unlikely that they are barely worth considering compared to the long—term consequences of covid—19. that‘s really interesting. george asks, if the vaccine only stops coronavirus symptoms, would you still be able to catch the virus spread it to others? we don‘t know right now.

these two vaccines have reported activity against developing the disease. that is important. we don‘t know whether it will block transmission. i think it‘s really important for people to realise the difference between 90 and 95% is meaningless. it doesn‘t mean that one vaccine is better than the other, it is still based on small numbers studied over a small period. we don‘t know how effective these vaccines will be at six months or 12 months, so we might see that figure come down over time. that brings us to this question, naseem says, some scientists have said we will return to some degree of normality for a year because of vaccine, and others have said the virus is here to stay forever. who is right, or both statements right? they are both right. i think, if we manage to get vaccines rolled out, particularly if we have coverage of the majority of vulnerable people in the uk, we will be able to start getting back to a degree

of normality from the summer onwards, but the virus is still going to persist, so we are likely to need booster vaccinations and ensure that we have a strategy for the next five to ten years and, unless the virus is eliminated, we will always have the potential for the virus being seeded from other parts of the world, which is what it is also important for us to ensure there is access to these vaccines around the world. still don‘t know that herd immunity, but maybe we can come onto that at the end. some more questions, susan asks, will the vaccines which boost the immune system suitable for people who take immunosuppressants? all of these vaccines don‘t have an infectious component, so they will certainly be safe for people on immunosuppressants. what we don‘t know is how effective they will be, so we need to do those studies and see what sort of immune response they induce. it is unknown as to how well they will work,

but there is no perceived danger in taking the vaccine at this point. this is from martin, which is somewhat left field. martin says, i am allergic to eggs. can i be vaccinated? he says he can‘t have the because of that. —— he can‘t have the flu vaccine because of this. that‘s a nice question, and the flu vaccine is traditionally grown in eggs, but it‘s the only vaccine that is produced in x. vaccine that is produced in eggs. none of the vaccines are being developed against covid—19 developed in eggs, so you will not have a problem if you are allergic to eggs with any of these vaccines. cheri says, will people who have had a positive antibody test be vaccinated? if they are in a vulnerable category, iwould recommend they are vaccinated, because infection gives very varied levels of immune response, so it‘s difficult to know if you will be protected and for how

long, and we see at the moment that the prime minister is self—isolating. a booster vaccine, a vaccine will boost your immune response and give you better protection long—term. picking up on herd immunity and the antibodies, the prime minister said his antibodies were racing around his system like the butcher‘s dog or whatever it was, but do we know that as a fact, that the antibodies for him, who has had it, we‘ll be protecting him now? do we know that for a fact? we don‘t know that as a fact. i don‘t know what levels of antibodies he has or whether they are a type of antibodies that neutralise the virus. one would expect they might well be but how long that protection lasts we don‘t know, and so it is sensible for him to adhere to the rules that the government has a set and self—isolate the relevant time period. with the two vaccines we know about and the others that are coming in a few months‘ time, we think, we expect herd immunity

to be a0, 50, 60% globally within what sort of timeframe? do we know how long that might last? it‘s important to emphasise right now we don‘t know whether these vaccines will block transmission, so therefore the herd immunity question is not relevant until we get data that says how well vaccines work against transmission and infection, rather than disease. when we have that data, we can calculate how many people might need to be vaccinated but, at the moment, we are not in a position or even contemplating that we need to do mass vaccination to reach herd immunity. this question from rhiannon, who will be eligible for the vaccine first? we know this will need to be prioritised, and this relates to the fact that it prevents against the disease, so somebody who is unlikely to get disease might not necessarily benefit from the vaccine. it will be rolled out first

to the most vulnerable, people in care homes and staff of care homes, and then rolled out according to age, also to the health sector and social workers, and to people with underlying conditions that might make them more susceptible to developing disease. when you say age, the elderly first of all, care homes and then decreasing down the age scale, so people over 60, people over 50, people over a0 and whatever? we don‘t know whether the government will decide to go lower than 50. we are watching to see how well these vaccines work and whether they block transmission. a couple more questions. rowley asks, has an mrna vaccine ever been produced and worked before? that‘s a good question. we have had mrna vaccines produced in the cancer field, and some of those have worked, but the trails have been very limited, and we have had a number

of clinical trials where they have shown encouraging results, but so far we haven‘t had a vaccine licensed using mrna technology. if they get through the licensing hurdle, these will be the first to be licensed, and they will have achieved that because they have been able to be tested in so many individuals tested against an infection that is of very high prevalence and they are able to get the statistical answer to show that they work. finally, from sj, will be 0xford vaccine, the one with astrazeneca, be approved soon? the simple answer is i don‘t know. i anticipate that they will get data soon that will tell us whether it is working or not. i am really helpful for my 0xford colleagues that it does help well, colleagues that it does work well,

because that would be another really important vaccine to add to our two, but until the data comes through, it is anybody‘s guess. -- add to our tool box. i also think it is considerably cheaper than the other ones that have been discovered so far. good to speak to you, professor. thank you for all your knowledge on those questions. my pleasure. hello. we‘re all going to be sitting under a fairly hefty whack of cloud in the next few days. that cloud is being pulled in from the atlantic and it comes along with some very mild air. if it does thin and break in a few spots, which it may do with a little bit of help from the hills, we could see our temperatures and eastern regions shooting up today. eastern regions shooting up today. but as we continue to pull in the south—westerly air into western scotland, there‘s going to be a lot of moisture around. here, some fairly relentless rain and across the hills, the totals keep adding up.

i think we‘ll see perhaps some rain setting in from western wales and parts of northern ireland with the higher ground, especially through the day as well. a lot of cloud around, as i said, but some sheltered eastern spots will see the sun coming out and the temperatures could shoot up to 16, even 17 degrees, but widely, we‘re in the mid—teens on tuesday despite the grey skies. through tuesday evening over into wednesday, still lots of cloud around, still that rain across western scotland. it will be a mild start to wednesday in many areas, temperatures down no lower than the low teens. what will actually happen through wednesday is during the daytime, our temperatures will come down, some as this weather front advances from the west. yes, it will bring rain, it‘ll be another windy story on wednesday too. the east starts with some sunshine. we mayjust cling onto the mild air here into the afternoon with a little bit of brightness across east anglia, temperatures could get up to 16 degrees. behind the front, it‘s clearer, it‘s brighter but it‘s consequently colder.

temperatures just 10—11, so chillier in the figures to start the day. this perhaps shows the transition best, though. wednesday into thursday, we sweep away the mild atlanta air and we‘re plunged into arctic air, a northerly blast setting up as our area of low pressure that‘s been with us for quite some time gets replaced by a brief ridge of high pressure. very clear air coming down from the arctic. there‘ll be some beautiful sunshine around on thursday, some showers, though, for scotland, cold enough to be wintry. gales down the north sea coast. it will be particularly cold when we factor in the wind, and a few showers possible for wales and eastern england on that wind as well. the biggest change for thursday is how it will feel. for the likes of scotland, temperatures will feel closer to freezing when you factor in the wind.

this is bbc news. i‘m tim willcox with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the world health organization warns against complacency after a second firm announced successful trials of a covid—19 vaccine. i broke into an ear—to—ear grin when i heard the numbers. it really exceeded our best hopes and it is an incredibly exciting moment for us. as coronavirus cases in the us top 11 million, president—electjoe biden warns more people could die if the trump administration doesn‘t co—operate with the transition process. "light at the end of the tunnel" — the postponed tokyo olympics and paralympics will go ahead, according to the ioc. and in another bitterly contested vote, new zealand