LONDON – A shower honors the ‘champions’ of the UK’s Covid vaccine race as part of the 2021 Honor Roll investments awarded by the Queen at the suggestion of the British government. Among the shortlisted are Professor Sarah Gilbert and Andrew Pollard, of the University of Oxford, champions of developing the AstraZeneca-produced antidote that helped allow the kingdom to leave in advance of every other country in the world in its pandemic vaccination campaign.
Gilbert and Pollard received the supreme recognition of the knight, becoming respectively lady and lord, like Kate Bingham, the city’s top manager who was called in by Boris Johnson’s government at the start of the emergency to lead negotiations to reserve the fast-track with millions of vaccines capable of burning all of Europe over time.
Other researchers have also received various honors. While there has been no shortage of the usual accolades in the world of culture, art and entertainment, starting with the announced appointment of Baronet (and Mr.) to Jonathan Pryce, the actor who played Prince Philip on the final season of the TV series The Crown, which honors the 95-year-old sovereign. Somehow a year for her husband, who recently passed away at the age of 100.
Many of the honors have also been directed at figures committed to social causes, including in the backdrop of the Covid fallout, including famous players such as Raheem Sterling, the jewel of British-Caribbean roots for England’s new champion Manchester City.
Finally, on the political front, the Knighthood goes to former Tory Brexite minister Andrea Leadsom, as well as two veterans of the Labor Opposition in Parliament, Meg Hillier and Tony Lloyd, set to become Mrs. Meg and Sir Tony.
