Chris Whitty moves to head off GPs' rebellion over vaccine doses

I think that the approach they're taking is like using a pair of tights as a fan belt - will work for a bit in a desperate situation but not actually dealing with the problem properly.

lemongrove

I think this whole thread has more to do with politics/Brexit and general UK bashing than real concern ( from some quarters.)

Maybee Van Tamm felt that putting a mask on and carrying on much as normal wouldn’t do a great job of combatting the virus ( they are often unwashed/ fiddled about with).
As part of a hygiene and cautious ‘routine’ and kept very clean, then they help somewhat.

On 3 April JVT at the daily briefing said there was no hard evidence to say that mask wearing was beneficial and that Asian countries did it as it was ‘wired into their culture’. I can’t do a link. Maybe someone else can. He made no reference to people fiddling with the masks. Just said they didn’t work. Think he referred to WHO guidelines about it but I need to rewatch it to confirm that.

It has nothing to do with politics. We’re in the middle of a pandemic and controlling it must be non political. I find it insulting to be accused of putting my political beliefs before people’s lives and safety.

Lemongrove - do you understand why increasing the gap to 12 weeks increases the risk of vaccine resistant strains developing?

I think this is being done for all the reasons people were worried about weeks ago.

Not enough vaccine doses, logistical problems with the low temperature storage, a mess up with regard to who will be "done" first, and the rise in covid cases.

Nexumi65 - everything you say is what I have concerns about - I also guess that the longer a virus is circulating the more opportunities it has to mutate. None of this is great - if we’d locked down for longer number viris would have been lower - but another mutation might have come in from somewhere else - it’s all bad news really and no one ( apart from New Zealand!) seems to have got this right. Who CAN we trust - no-one has a clue! Also - what gives Tony Blair the right to say one dose is a good plan? We’re all amateur epidemiologists now !

lemon ''It will be a cold day in Hell before I swallow any GNers ( or any social media forum) musings whole on a subject as important as this one. ''

and then accuse us that our concerns re not following researchers/producers' instructions re second shot and mixing, is politically motivated, and UK bashing.

You really take the biscuit. This is not a kindergarten, people are dying.

Which is why giving more people the first vaccine to give them some protection from the worst of Covid makes sense.

no, something is very fishy/amiss here. If millions of the Oxford vaccine will soon be available- then the Pfizer vaccine should be given as per scientific instructions- then the Oxford given asap to as many as poss.

You just don't mess around with vaccines, you just don't.

Boris has apparently said that measures may need to be tougher.

That seems to be the way these announcements are made, so I expect that's where we're headed.