Coronavirus update - NO MORE RESTRICTIONS

[the other bob wilson]

Are you watching the news conference Bob?

Once again Van Tam is showing that he is head and shoulders above any politician in this country at presenting this sort of news

He is as usual calm precise and clear'


I agree that this particular point about the blood clotting is nothing to do with Europeans getting at us. From all I have heard from various scientists in the UK about what normally happens in these situations these countries were probably too cautious in having a complete ban on such little evidence but I don't think there was anything political in it

However some of the EU's earlier tactics ( eg Macron saying that the Astra Zeneca vaccine was "quasi ineffective" in the over 65's and other French ministers sneering at us because we were allowing a 12 week instead of a 4 week gap and thus delaying getting our population fully vaccinated ) plus of course the heavy handedness of the EU commission when they were trying to hide their own procrastination in sorting our the vaccines in the summer of last year rather poisoned the atmosphere which played into the hands of those in this country. It was all completely unnecessary in my view but we are where we areears

How much those earlier tactics were getting back as us for Brexit will probably keep political commentators and historians going for years.

Didn’t see the conference, but I agree about Van Tam. The EU cocked up for sure, but the concerns about the vaccine were genuine it would appear, so some of the jingoistic we were seeing about a fortnight ago in some sections of the media was misplaced as well as childish

[Elwood Blues]

Didn’t see the conference, but I agree about Van Tam. The EU cocked up for sure, but the concerns about the vaccine were genuine it would appear, so some of the jingoistic we were seeing about a fortnight ago in some sections of the media was misplaced as well as childish

Jeremy Brown who is a professor of Respiratory Medicine at University College London has just on Newsnight criticised those countries who he said rapidly suspended the vaccine in age groups where the risk benefit clearly supported still using it, and by stopping the jab have probably causes more deaths than they would have done if they had carried on with it.

It is unquantifiable now, but maybe the original unjustified comments made by some countries didn't help Astra Zeneca when the clotting problem came up.

As for being childish I don't disagree that some of the press were, but the EU by their initial actions ( and some since!) threw their toys out of the tram.

To be fair to our government I think they have behaved pretty responsibly over this matter (that hasn't,as you would agree, always been the case in recent years) and have made the EU look stupid and unreasonable over the vaccination issue

[the other bob wilson]

Jeremy Brown who is a professor of Respiratory Medicine at University College London has just on Newsnight criticised those countries who he said rapidly suspended the vaccine in age groups where the risk benefit clearly supported still using it, and by stopping the jab have probably causes more deaths than they would have done if they had carried on with it.

It is unquantifiable now, but maybe the original unjustified comments made by some countries didn't help Astra Zeneca when the clotting problem came up.

As for being childish I don't disagree that some of the press were, but the EU by their initial actions ( and some since!) threw their toys out of the tram.

To be fair to our government I think they have behaved pretty responsibly over this matter (that hasn't,as you would agree, always been the case in recent years) and have made the EU look stupid and unreasonable over the vaccination issue

I think our embarrassment of an Education Secretary was making childish comments when it came to comparing us with the EU well before they were.having public doubts about “our” vaccine;-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55175162

However, I agree that the UK Government have, effectively, let their record do their talking when it came to the vaccine. I’ve been very critical of the UK Government for their overall handling of the pandemic and will continue to be, but I have to accept that they’ve done well when it comes to the vaccine roll out - if people want to see the dispute between the EU and the UK over the vaccine as some kind of war, then I agree that we’re winning it at the moment.

[Optimistic Nick]

Didn’t see the conference, but I agree about Van Tam. The EU cocked up for sure, but the concerns about the vaccine were genuine it would appear, so some of the jingoistic we were seeing about a fortnight ago in some sections of the media was misplaced as well as childish

I think the point is that:

- IF there is a link between clotting and the jab then it is very weak
- For old people: they'd be far, far more likely to die from COVID than the clotting (IF there is a link). So it is beneficial to jab them EVEN IF there is a risk of clotting.
- For young people: they are very, very unlikley to die from COVID and so IF there is a risk of clotting, then the number of young people who die from clotting would be far closer to the number that are prevented from dying of COVID because they have had the vaccine. So the benefit of having it for any one person does not so obviously outweigh the risk IF there is a link to clotting
- But overall, having young people vaccinated is a Good Thing as it may help stop the spread EVEN IF the young person having the jab would likely be asyptomatic.

That does sort of make sense to me. There is some uncertainty as regards the link; even with the link it is a no-brainer for older people; but a bit less clear cut for the younger ones so give them the other jabs (although it's not like the other ones come with no risk of some bizarre side-effect either).