U-turn coming?
There's a vaccine shortage. We can inoculate more people than we have vaccines for. So our world-beating government came up with an oven-ready idea. Instead of following the instructions on the tin, and give two doses three weeks apart, they are giving then 12 weeks apart. This means that about twice as many people can be jabbed ... in the short term. It's actually a way to kick the can further down the road.
But one dose only works 50% of the time, you need two doses to get the full 90% protection.
And Pfizer and BioNTech have both warned that this hasn't been tested. It might work, or it might not. There is no evidence their vaccine would continue to be protective if the second dose is given more than 21 days after the first.
No other country is doing this. Only the UK.
The British Medical Association wants that 12 week wait to be shortened to six weeks, and they've written to the government to say so.
And what happens to a can kicked down the road? Experience tells us that the usual answer is that it gets kicked again. There is no guarantee that the second dose will be available three months from now. Supplies of vaccine are not like saucepans coming off a production line.
So I feel a U-turn in the offing.
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