the practical questions of the world are being able to vaccinate itself out of the covid pandemic. so although the uk s progress innoculating its citizens has been widely praised, the statement expected monday from borisjohnson on exiting lockdown is likely to be heavy with caveats. saturday s newspapers were full of good news. some speculation but a concrete commitment that the government has confirmed that people in care homes will now be able to meet a relative indoors and hold hands for the first time for some of them in nearly a year. do you think this might be an attempt to sweeten the pill? from the other indications, and we don t know until borisjohnson says what the plans are, there is a talk of a wholesale return to school in a few weeks, too. it is more than sweetening the pill. it looks like the trend lines of hospitalisations, of deaths, of the r rate, all the indicators are positive and quite steeply so. and this appears to be, not so much a consequence of vacci