COVID - general discussion - Temp Locked

Interesting comments.  But why my question is why has the idea of longer gaps between jabs has been been suggested by a group of eminent scientists?

How ironic you post about entrenched views and peer groups yet most on here are doing exactly that and nothing changes your minds. If someone doesn't want to have a vaccine thats their choice end of. I was going to add that its a free country but considering the views of a few on here I think you would rather it wasn't.

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Apart from illnesses that have been difficult to eradicate via scientific means eg Malaria the vast majority of major infections have been eradicated. Cranks or not once a percentage take up a vaccine the disease loses it's grip. 

Because of our age range I think / hope we should be getting our first dose of vaccine by about February. This would mean our second dose would be April or May (all pure speculation of course at this moment in time). If so we should be away in Cornwall late April - early May.

Depending on the actual dates for our jabs we would either cut our holidays slightly short at either end or drive back home and then drive back, probably the following day. It would be a round trip of 500+ miles but in the scheme of things I'd be prepared to do it.  We've not driven very far this year so fuel cost isn't a major issue and driving without the caravan on the back would be relatively quick. What we wouldn't want to do is cancel our holiday completely. It's the only thing to look forward to at the moment apart from hopefully being free of the virus.  This is all pre-supposing everything, including the CLs, are open in April / May.  

I support the vaccine roll out, but it is all about percentages. Here in the UK they reckon to have 80% of the population vaccinated by the end of 2021, if you take a population of some 60 million  that leaves about 12 million that for whatever reason will not have been vaccinated.

Some of these will have a naturall immunity, be located in places where they have little contact with others etc,  so in the grand scheme of things the chances of being close enough to an un-vaccinated person who is carrying the virus is fairly remote. 

What should be of concern is travelling to countries where the roll out of the vaccine is going to take time e.g. Spain are rolling the vaccine out in 3 phases, phase 3 will not be completed until September 2021, and a recent poll suggests only 24 % of the population would have the vaccination immediately and 36 % would get the vaccination after having waited some time with 10 % refusing to be vaccinated, could be another reason to plan that staycation.

Ministers must tread carefully to curb spread in schools

Easy - stop them coming into schools then

a good point, and will other countries demand that those travelling into it will be vaccinated?

Prof Hugh Montgomery, professor of intensive care medicine at University College London, said: "It is making me actually very angry now that people are laying the blame on the virus, and it is not the virus, it is people, people are not washing their hands, they are not wearing their masks."

I think this statement by JVT is pertinent, as to when we are likely to get the first jab:-

The Government was hoping to vaccinate two million people a week to be able to lift restrictions by Easter but Jonathan Van-Tam, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, warned supply issues could hinder the roll-out.

He said: “The only thing that is going to slow us down is batches of vaccine becoming available”, adding that there were also delays in the “fill and finish” of the vaccine – putting doses into glass vials – which was a “critically short resource across the globe”.

We could possibly be waiting a bit longer than we think. A time line in the paper at only a million a week puts us at 68 at  the end of March early April. So the second jab would fall in July.