Rates as of 0500 GMT

Market Recap

GBP once again went down, down, down. The decline is being attributed to concerns about the vaccine rollout in the UK, which depends on the AstraZeneca vaccine. As that has come under question for deadly blood clots, the ultimate success of the UK vaccine program has come under question, too. The UK governments vaccine advisory group, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation JCVI, updated its guidance to encourage people under 30, whose risks from the virus are less, to use other vaccines. There are reports that the change would delay by at least a fortnight the governments promise to offer all adults a jab by the end of July, but Englands deputy chief medical officer said the impact on the schedule should be zero or negligible as long as the expected supplies of the other two vaccines in use in the UK arrived as expected.

The controversy is unfortunate because as the graph shows, the UK has been having tremendous success relative to other countries. Back in January it had a higher rate of new cases than the US or EU by far!, but now its down almost to Japanese levels. The US meanwhile is starting to turn up yet again.

Im sceptical about this setback however, for three reasons. One, the UK is already far ahead. That lead should persist as even people whove had one shot gain some immunity I hope!. I believe them when they say theyll be able to give all adults a first jab by endJuly as they move up the learning curve, the…