A couple of hours after I posted this, I got a text offering the 2nd jab. I should be all jabbed up on the 15th May :)

I think within the NHS and Public Health those with an agenda to reduce alcohol consumption simply cannot resist perhaps over egging the effects of alcohol on vaccination.

I deliberately didn’t have anything to drink on the day of my AZ vaccination, not because of any concerns about effectiveness but because I’d been warned that the next day I might feel a bit rough anyhow.

This was a good move, as I did indeed feel a bit rough the next morning (to the point of taking paracetamol and having a nap for a couple of hours) and I don’t think I’d have enjoyed it if those symptoms had been worsened by the consumption of alcohol.

As CWS says, the (very very rare) dangerous side effects would also likely manifest as headaches, so if you want to be exceedingly cautious then avoiding alcohol isn’t a bad idea from that perspective. Although I’ve had a few days with headaches since my vaccine despite not having had any alcohol at all the day before so I can’t promise that abstaining solves that problem ;-)

I'll be staying off the booze when I have my second jab. I've heard a few people have felt dreadful after the second Pfizer jab, so I don't want to mix that with a rotten hangover!

From a public health perspective sure. It is well known that drinking too much is a major public health concern in the UK. And it is known that alcohol impairs the immune system.
Either way, drinking less is always a good thing, but a few drinks after the jab should be ok, given many people I know had a celebratory drink after getting jabbed!

Daily data:

Cases 1,671 (1,712 last Sunday)
Deaths 14 (11)
Patients admitted 160 (132 on the 20th)
Patients in hospital 1,451 (1,781 on the 22nd)
Patients on ventilator 185 (243 on the 23nd)
People vaccinated up to and including 1 May 2021:
First dose: 34,505,380
Second dose: 15,329,617

The rolling seven day daily average for cases is now down 10.2% on the previous week and the same measure for deaths is down 31.2%. With today's jabs, the total for the UK will now be over 50 million. The hospital data has not been updated today.

Drinkaware suggests avoiding alcohol for two weeks after the vaccine for optimal immunity build up. Maybe OTT but that's what all of us in our household did and are doing. No harm, plenty of nice alcohol free drinks out there... We've discovered no-secco which is tasty!

​​​​​​ In other news...

When covid enters a family, it spreads like wildfire. Nine family members in Brazil are positive, two in hospital, one doing particularly badly. Thinking of skipping your vaccine because you have a one in a three million chance of developing a super rare blood clot? Your chances of ending up in hospital with covid are much bigger. My mum is thankfully fine and negative despite a contact, pretty much the only one in the family who isn't positive, most likely thanks to her vaccine. When your vaccine offer comes - take it, and take the earliest slot you can get.My auntie has been intubated, it looks bad. The worst part of it is that she got it from my cousin who knew her sister and mother and father all were positive but she went to go visit my auntie anyway. My auntie has a very special needs daughter so if something happens to her I have no idea what they will do. Get your vaccine!

I'm sorry to read about this, and I hope your auntie gets through this OK. And I'm afraid you are absolutely correct that inter-family contact remains the fastest way for this virus to spread, particularly when indoors. All through the pandemic, even though family household visits have been legally restricted, this remains even in the UK the main form of transmission. In internal surveys we find that people serious under-estimate the risks they take in this area, generally not wearing masks and getting close to each other, and over-estimate the risks of getting the disease from unknown contacts in supermarkets or public transport. Best wishes to you and your family at this very difficult time.

I’m hoping the US will start to see the “exponential decay” the UK has been experiencing. And I wish Europe could get their vax act together!

In many ways the US is. The US is largely open and has been. Yet cases are dropping. Given the prevalence of the highly transmissible UK variant in the US, I think the clear answer is that vaccines are having an effect.

It's already happening. Germany has administered over 1.1m doses last Wednesday, and many other countries in the EU are picking up pace too.

Indeed. As someone from the UK who now lives in Germany, it quite frustrating to me how the vaccine situation is portrayed in English language newspapers in the UK (especially the tabloids, such as the Express which in particular seems to have a personal vendetta against Angela Merkel).

There are plenty of things one can legitimately criticise, at both national and EU level - Macron's comments, for example, were very unhelpful indeed.

But the incessant framing of everything that happens in Europe as a personal snub against "British" Oxford-AstraZeneca, or as a jealous EU retaliating for Brexit, is so far detached from the mundane reality of regulatory approvals, safety monitoring, and contracts that it just makes the British press and segments of its society look utterly deranged.

You're hired!

We have been looking for a baseline comparator and you now have the job. Abstain from alcohol at home and on all flights for the next three months as you are now a vital comparator to the rest of the FT crowd :D

corporate-wage-slave - now that the CDC in the US has said that Americans fully vaccinated can travel freely, many are expecting that soon they will allow Brits to travel relatively easily come July/August - however, I don't know if anyone has raised the fact that the US has not approved the AZ vaccine. Does this mean the US doesn't recognise those vaccinated using AZ as actually vaccinated with an approved vaccine?

That depends on the state. Texas and Florida have largely been open since last summer. Here in California we have slowly been opening, and that is only because of an action to recall our governor. Otherwise we would still be on hard lockdown.

Vaccines have probably played a role in getting our numbers down, which is great. Looks like it’s working well for the UK too.

If only Europe, Australia, and Japan could figure it out...