I don't think that's true GE. The UKs performance during this pandemic has been awful. But the one thing that thye did get right was their vaccine rollout. I'm not aware of the decision making behind opting to get behind AZ in the UK, but the fact that it was developed at Oxford probably factored in there heavily. Regardless, the people of the UK didn't line up for AZ because they had "little choice". Thye were more than willing, and gave one of the chief scientists a standing ovation when she was introduced at Wimbledon. The reports that I've hear are that the average punter in the UK look on at our hesitancy with AZ as absurd. But then, they''ve had a different pandemic to us.
As for the UK being a fine mess currently. They have no restrictions in place currently, and while Covid is fairly rampant, case numbers have stabilised, probably declining, and the burden on the health care system and death is about 7% of where it was at this point in their last wave, and the majority of those are unvaccinated. Far from being a fine mess, for the first time in the pandemic, the UK is in a better position than us, and its on the back of AZ