There will ALWAYS be a risk of new outbreaks, this is one virus that is not going away for a very long time. But surely being on a small island like ours, and with the undoubtedly fantastic vaccine programme that we had the privilege to be a part of, does it not make total sense to want to "keep it at bay" as much as possible?
We HAD that opportunity over a year ago!
We have *repeatedly* had opportunities to keep it at bay, unfortunately some people were more concerned about their "freedoms" (or their profits!) and made decisions that have been derided as hindsight, often by the people who couldn't or wouldn't make the hard decisions.
Our main downfall will generally come from people bringing the virus in from outside of the UK, seeing as some countries are still in a right state and out of control
There are countries which are CRYING OUT for the vaccines which have been hogged by the rich countries who were patting themselves on the back for getting their orders in first and buying up huge stocks (more than their people could ever need).
This contributes to them being in a "right state and out of control".
You can't knock us for "patting ourselves on the back" just because we got something right for a change? Would you prefer us to have not been ahead of the game and done things differently, and perhaps been at the back of the queue instead, because that would just not make any sense?
By the way, India, for example, has the 5th largest economy in the world, so what's their excuse? It's not money, it's a blatant disregard of the capabilities of the virus. They can't even use the excuse that it came from nowhere, as they've had over a year to contemplate any kind of plan. But the reality is that they shrugged it off in the hope that god would watch over them, and that ideology is not turning out too well right now.