Tuesday 8 December 2020

Which vaccine to choose!

Will there come a point when while queueing up for a coronavirus vaccine one can say: "I think I'll have that one please. Not that one, but that one." Any day now there is going to be a rush of different vaccines available on the market and it's going to be difficult to know which one is the most effective. They are all claiming pretty much similar effectiveness. I suppose it doesn't matter and anyway no government is going to have different queues for different vaccines. You get what you're given. But on the other hand, if the Oxford one does turn out to be just as good as the other ones, shouldn't we go for that one and not Pfizer. For two reasons. It's much much cheaper and can be stored in a fridge like a takeaway curry. It doesn't need to be kept at a ridiculous 70 degrees below as required for the Pfizer vaccine which means only large hospitals with huge freezers can store it. Lancet, the bible for medical-breakthrough articles, seems to be saying today that the Oxford vaccine is fine and effective and ready to go, although I notice the Daily Mail has read the Lancet article differently and has come to the opposite conclusion which will be somewhat confusing for the paper's readers. The only thing that still slightly mars the Oxford vaccine is the strange error over the testing when only half a dose was used. But the weird thing is the half dose was more than 90 per cent effective whereas the full dose was only 62 per cent. That I simply don't understand but wiser people than I will no doubt have an explanation. Meanwhile a 90-year-old woman in Northern Ireland has become the first person on the planet to receive a vaccine - the Pfizer one. Bless her. I wish her many more healthy and happy years. .

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