“A great day for science and humanity … ” At last, there was some positive news this week of vaccine trials, with Pfizer and BioNTech announcing a success rate that exceeded all expectations, preventing 90% of people from contracting covid-19. There is now a real prospect that some kind of normality will return in the spring.

Aside from the amazing speed at which an apparently effective vaccine has been developed, the timing of the announcement in the first week of England’s second nationwide lockdown has meant the sense of relief and hope has been hard to contain.

But the point for business is that scientists have proved that it should be possible to control the disease, thereby ending the prospect of a continuing cycle of lockdowns and restrictions that curtail key parts of the economy. Construction is able to operate during the second lockdown, although for key sectors it works in, such as retail and leisure, building work is the last thing they need.

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