The French do seem to have taken against the AZ vaccine, strange as AZ is run by a Frenchman.
A number of people here have given Wattie a kicking for simply pointing out what a lot of health professionals have mentioned - Covid risk falls rapidly with age so for very young people vaccine risk may be at parity. Very few of us are young enough to bother to think about that but it’s an issue which many of our children will be thinking through whatever they tell us in conversation.
A thought for anyone healthy as we come into summer. If you don’t go out a lot and don’t have the mistaken belief that many have about going to Spain etc this summer then go and dig into new vaccines that are coming. Look at how much research/clinical trials many of these have had, are they single dose and ask if they - and indeed AZ2 etc - are targeting newer variants? For those over 60 it was a no brainer to get jabbed as soon as offered, ditto for those who are younger with serious health issues but for other people waiting might give a better health outcome especially as AZ1 is at the lower end of the performance stats which is hardly surprising for a low tech, easily delivery phase 1 response. Still glad that it exists as it’s a game changer.
We all shop around for cars so when there are a dozen vaccines available in six months time some element of consumer choice would be nice. This is hard to deliver with a state run ‘free’ health system but it will be interesting to see what choices people make in other systems which are more demand driven.
I agree vaccine passports are coming whatever those adverse to identity cards say so we will need to get them to travel. I travel a lot through Dubai as a hub and can easily see how European countries can have everything in place to vaccinate people and issue Covid passports but lots of less developed countries are going to struggle to deliver this. Airline travel is going to be strange for quite a long time.
Some of the various vaccines are quite different in how they work, and how they need to be stored, but they seem to have very similar outcomes (seems to me that 92% effectiveness and 96% effectiveness is near enough the same thing for something like this). I'm with Dr Faucci - when he was asked which was the best vaccine, he said, 'The one you are offered soonest'.
And, yes the value / risk to an individual in taking the vaccine does vary (a bit) with the risk-factors of that individual. So if you are in a group more likely to be exposed (nurses, shopkeepers) or in a group more likely to have serious outcome (older, fatter, sicker) then the risk:benefit calculation changes for an individual. (But not by much as the vaccines are very safe and the harms are unevenly distributed.)
BUT as well as protecting yourself, one point of vaccines is for enough people to take them to protect the population at large (as I have said). While the ideal
personal model is for everyone else to have a vaccination and you not to have one, the ideal
population model is for you to join in with everyone else to have the vaccination. All (both) my children (in their 20s)
have thought this through, and tell me in conversation that they think the right thing to do (as with MMR, polio, etc) is to get the vaccination, primarily to protect others.
Also, the evidence seems to suggest that the risks in taking the vaccine are so low, that everyone might as well have it, if only to avoid the argument about whether they are public-spirited or selfish. Indeed on present evidence, the (tiny) risk of injury or death from going to get vaccinated seems to be significantly higher due to the journey itself, rather than the vaccine, which suggests that you should aim to get the vaccine at your nearest venue (as well as your soonest opportunity). A bit like only buying a ticket for the Saturday lottery after Thursday morning, so your risk of winning is higher than your risk of dying between the purchase and the draw.