Light brown A4 Dingbats* notebook, used by Kate Bingham during her time as Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, 2020

Following an idea from Sir Patrick Vallance, UK Government's chief scientific advisor, The UK Vaccine Taskforce was established in April 2020. Their aims were to secure access to promising COVID-19 vaccines for the 65 million people in the United Kingdom, make provisions for international distribution of vaccines and upscale capacity in vaccine development, manufacturing, and supply. Kate Bingham, a venture capitalist, was appointed the first chair and held the unpaid post for 7 months. Members were brought in from private sector technical and manufacturing, civil service, academia, including people with clinical and scientific knowledge, programme management, and supply and delivery experience.

At the time the Taskforce was created, several COVID-19 vaccines were in development and in very early stages of testing. There were no guarantees if any would be successful through the rigorous clinical and safety testing and approval process. The Taskforce decided to secure six vaccine candidates with four different mechanisms to give the best chance of being able to provide a safe and effective vaccine.

After helping to develop the roll-out of the successful vaccines, the Taskforce closed in October 2022. Responsibilities for vaccine supply are now with the UK Health Security Agency and onshoring vaccine manufacturer is under the Office for Life Sciences.