Learnings from the vaccines taskforce: an apotheosis in mission, purpose and handling risk.

The Vaccines Task Force was established by the UK government in March 2020, with the objective of securing early access to effective COVID-19 vaccines for the UK population and internationally. The VTF was successful in securing the earliest access to the Oxford/Astra Zeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, allowing the UK to be the first country in the world to deploy an approved COVID-19 vaccine. The VTF also played a critical role in supporting efforts to distribute vaccines globally, as one of COVAX's earliest and largest donors.