You should probably do less guessing.

Do you really believe that doctors in Norway - not a EU member - and Iceland - not a EU member - would voice concern out of "bureaucracy/childish games"? Really?

I'm not saying they are right, I'm not saying they are wrong. I'm saying that it's medical experts who are making these decisions and these aren't working as EU commissioners or whatever. To say that they're somehow part of a biiiig conspiracy because they're jealous of the UK is preposterous. We're talking about doctors with PhDs, not pre-schoolers in the sandpit.

Call it excess of caution, call it extreme conservativism, call it fear of being wrong... but to call it a spitiful reaction to the UK's successes (which ones? the highest death toll in Europe? the £37bn waste of track & trace? etc) is just an insult to people's intelligence.

well the uk medical experts say it’s safe so which medical experts should we believe?

We have two groups of experts having opposing views? One of them is wrong, and given the EU’s track record on vaccines you know which side I am on!

I don’t think medical bodies should base their decisions on what the media view is. Given the pockets of vaccine skepticism that exist, caution is certainly more preferable in the long-term. I guess it comes down to whether you think this a marathon or a sprint.

I would thoroughly recommend not reading the Daily Mail, or at least less and not the comments, then your blood probably won’t boil over. :)

what I love about the daily mail is they never pretend to be serious so I enjoy a laugh with them.

what I don’t like about telegraph and times is they act all superior and serious but they are no better than daily mail so I prefer people who show their true colours and not act all fake

And the comment section is the best barometer of political opinion in the country, the good the bad and the ugly !

I agree.

I'm not in the business of public health and the last time I've been in a chemistry lab was in high school; so it's not for me to say who's right and who's wrong. I think that, in this forum, C-W-S is the most skilled in this field and his opinion is upthread.

Should my GP call me tomorrow and ask me to get an AZ jab I'll go without hesitation. I might ask a couple of questions just out of curiosity, but that's it.

At the same time, I believe that if there are concerns, or risks, then it's good to investigate them. It might very well come to nothing, it might be just a distraction, but when there's new technology that has the potential of affecting human lives... I say better safe than sorry. I just find your idea that this is an 'EU plot' completely absurd because, for the third time, the countries where these concerns started first aren't EU countries. Then there's the fact that the EU hasn't acted as one, but rather there have been individual states and, right here right now, there's a spectrum of positions from suspension to withdrawal of certain batches to business as usual.

I doubt the Northern Ireland Planned Healthcare Scheme (the replacement of the EU Cross-Border Healthcare Directive) can be used to get a vaccine? Though post-COVID expect this scheme to be heavily used to deal with backlogs in hospital treatments.

For those with anti-EU feelings: the best thing you could do to really show those Europeans that Britain is best, is to take the vaccine and follow the rules (i.e. keep contacts as low as possible) and show the world that vaccination represents the easiest path back to normality.

You might want to actually read and do a proper effort understanding what is the issue and what the various body are saying, as well as the basic of scientific method.
The Norwegian health authority recorded 4 cases of blood clot from people recently vaccinated. Applying the principle of precaution, they are temporarily stopping the vaccination the time to investigate if there is a link. That is the entire thing they are saying. They are not saying that this is unsafe, they are not opposing the UK medical experts (who are saying there is not any reason to investigate in the UK as the amount of blood clot recorded by the Yellow Card scheme is not out of normal). They are saying the same thing really.

If it’s boiling blood you want to avoid, I recommend not reading the Spectator and especially not the comments. Even in COVID and lockdown related articles expressing points of view I agree with, the comments are all “Bwaahaa the big man made me wear a FACE NAPPY!!!”

Good news on data today, 52 deaths 37% drop on a week ago, we may see the average weekly deaths finally dip under 100 by the end of next week. Cases also down at 4618 compared to 5534 yesterday despite 1.6m tests conducted again.

Re my earlier post about anti vaxxers, it wasn't a comment in the DM by MOP it was written as a question and answer session on the Health page.

There's a little wrinkle on that one. LFD numbers specifically and test numbers generally reported today actually relate to Friday, so when the school testing was being done. But the test results, so confirmed infection numbers, can come in faster than that, particularly with LFD, so we see Saturday figures in the confirmed cases (plus some Friday and Sunday), hence a drop with the schools not sitting. So tomorrow we should see lower test numbers (not so many LFDs from Saturday), but potentially some positive cases detected on Monday and reported on Monday.

I've been trying to work out how this will play out. A kid who has a positive result is sent home for 10 days, so won't provide a new LFD result and hopefully won't infect their classmates. So if the non school rates are falling - which I think they are - that will result in fewer LFD positives too, over time. In other words we are hopefully on a step in the numbers, before the declines should start again. There are around 700 false positives in the figures, which won't go away at this level of testing.

Thanks for the explanation. Do you have any feel at all yet on the numbers of kids/teachers testing positive compared to what was expected?
PS just booked 2nd jab same date and place as hubby 10 minutes apart so to others check website sooner rather than later, I was told it might take a couple of days to let me book it but that is about 24 hours.