From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., the staff here in Hounslow vaccinates every minute, as they do in thousands of other clinics and now 17 national vaccination centers.

Racetracks, sports stadiums and cathedrals have all been rebuilt for this purpose within days.

Which is why the UK was already approaching the four million mark at the weekend.

40 percent of people over 80 in the UK have had their first round of vaccination.

However, the actual mark against which Prime Minister Boris Johnson has to be measured is 14 million.

That's the number of people in the four highest risk groups Johnson claims to have immunized by mid-February.

According to the national vaccination authority JCVI, 88 percent of the corona deaths belong to these risk groups.

Why are the British getting the much-needed vaccination so much faster than their European neighbors?

At least five reasons can be found for this.