Politics trumps science

 We had a right to expect that the New Year would bring a more responsible approach to government on the part of Boris Johnson and his advisors. After all, he has a comfortable working majority and has, as the man who delivered Brexit, seen off potential rivals within the Conservative party for the foreseeable future. However, he still seems sensitive to what the tabloid press might say about him.

He is clearly worried that the target of inoculations against SARS/CoV2 set by himself and Matt Hancock might not be met. He has got the agreement of government health experts (including, worryingly, Wales' chief medical officer) to increase the gap between the first and the final booster dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in order to increase the number of jabs which can be made in the first month of the programme. This is against the advice of the company, which stresses that their product has been tested only with a 21 day gap and that it has been certified by health administrations only on that basis. More significantly, the BMA, which represents the doctors on the front line, has strenuously objected. Fortunately, as the New York Times has reported, many doctors have insisted on sticking to the original schedule. 

Coronaviruses are tricky customers, as the attempts to produce a virus against SARS1 showed. That is all the more reason to stick with what has been shown to work, rather than mess with the parameters. Johnson is proceeding on the basis of assumptions, much as he did last February when he failed to use the much-vaunted "control of our own borders" to prevent the invasion of SARS/CoV2 in the first place. 

There is a bright spot in that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine which becomes available in Wales next week has been shown to work with gaps longer than 21 days (indeed, there is a suggestion that it might be more effective with a longer gap). There is still, though, the danger of only partial protection after the first shot and therefore the necessity for a longer period of social distancing.

I am inclined under those circumstances to decline an offer of vaccination if made in the immediate future and wait for an unrestricted roll-out of both vaccines.

In the meantime, I have signed up for one of the ONS's Covid-19 tests to see whether I have had a brush with the virus without knowing it - and, of course, adding to the government's statistical base.