Why the C.D.C. Changed Its Advice on Masks Two scientific findings altered the calculus: Vaccinated people rarely transmit the virus, and the shots are effective against variants.

Fingers crossed the same happens here and those in slow takeup areas geddit.

novavax has delayed everything until the third quarter

Those 35 years old plus should be able to book on the England national system around Thursday 20 May, if I've done my maths correctly.

Unless this is nearly all second jabs, if we are capable of doing this why wasn’t it happening anyway? From tomorrow’s Telegraph..

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The Government wants to vaccinate as many as one million people a day as part of a drive to beat the Indian variant of Covid-19 and save the British summer, The Telegraph can disclose.

As a first step, ministers have told MPs they “safely” expect to increase daily doses from 500,000 to 800,000 within a fortnight, by drawing on a stockpile of 3.2 million doses.

Government insiders hope this daily run-rate could be further increased, with the possibility of reaching a peak of around one million during some days over the summer.

A further boost to the vaccination push could come this week when MHRA, the medicines regulator, is expected to give the green light for Johnson & Johnson’s single dose Janssen vaccine.

On Saturday night there were fears that the Government's decision to bring forward second doses for over-50s could impact younger people, with the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) warning they might have to wait "a while longer".

But ministers hope to keep daily doses at “800,000 and above”, putting the possibility of hitting one million first and second jabs a day in sight.

And senior government sources also confirmed that – despite the need to get second jabs into the arms of people in England – first jabs will be open “to the over 35s in the coming days”.

The vaccination programme, the biggest in health service history, has so far seen over 36 million people receive their first dose and over 19 million receive their second dose.

Ministers are confident that the army of 200,000 vaccination volunteers – including 80,000 vaccinators – will be enough to handle the expected surge in supply.

Got an SMS from NHS Booking today at 8:30 reading the following:

Went in and was able to cancel and pick appointments as early as tomorrow (I am now at almost 9 weeks from my first dose). I have booked a date and time for Wednesday (as I have Wednesday and Thursday off work so figured it gives me a day to hopefully get over the side effects).

At least in Scotland, the numbers still seem so low and we are already well into May. Germany is doing over a million a day and we will maybe manage it sometime in summer? So frustrating especially with the Indian variant possibly ruining everything.

It's hard not to feel quite depressed to be honest, everything was looking so good and then the Indian variant came and it feels like we could go right back to square 0. Being so close to Glasgow city council makes me fear/expect we'll be part of their basketcase too, meaning level 3 and illegal to travel this summer.

Germany is also 20-25% larger (population-wise) than the UK though.

I think it is too early to panic. Is there any reason to think the Indian variant is any worse than the SA variant? The same things are being said about it regarding transmissibility. The SA variant has had ample opportunity to hit us and has failed to make any significant impact beyond fear.

The key was seeing all the increase in infections in the young who hadn’t been vaccinated, in places like Bolton. The fact the older age groups didn’t seem to be increasing, added to the facts they should be protected (and the AZ works against it) means we can hopefully be ok if we can get 7-8m first dosed in the next few weeks.Then again what do I know.. I’d also like to think this is the likes of Sky News doing their own thing and foaming at the idea of scaring everybody.

The “4 deaths from Indian variant” already had my mums lot gossiping about it despite it being relatively low in Covid terms. I’ve been disappointed with Sky News this pandemic to be honest.

Apologies if this has been covered, but it looks like the statutory instrument which ends the travel ban and moves all of England to Step 3 has been published.

We expected these things to happen from tomorrow but this makes it official. One other interesting detail is that this amends the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings on Public Transport) legislation, which I believe is the legal basis for mandating face masks on not just buses and trains but also planes. This legislation will now expire on 20 June. Of course the legislation might change again, and BA are free to set their own policies, but I would be very pleasantly surprised if I don’t have to wear a face mask on my BA flight at the end of next month.

Keep a positive mind:


I'm not one of those "ignore the media" people, and rightly there is some caution over the variant because there are some unknowns, but I do think it is being overblown. There is just a variant news cycle at the moment.. we've had it with the Bristol variant, South Africa variant.

You get my drift... the important thing is now getting those vaccines in arms ASAP.

There doesn’t look to have been any negative difference to the figures at all in states such as Texas or Florida which removed the legal requirement for face masks, with Florida even having full capacity indoor events without them. Now they’ve ditched them nationally (for the most part), Vegas casinos have got rid of the requirement and I can’t wait to visit later in the year now.

It's good news indeed but I'd really like to see how well vaccines work against this variant to stop transmission too. That seems key. The fact that quite a few got it despite having one or two vaccines even seems to suggest it is good for stoping severe disease but not so good at stopping transmission. And then this could still lead to a huge wave and ruin summer.

Just thought I'd add a data point on vaccine side effects, I always find it useful to hear from others, so I thought it may help someone. I had the pfizer vaccine on Thursday (72 hours now). My fiance, based in Paris and her friend (who lives with her) also had the pfizer vaccine on Thursday.

Me and my fiance, apart from some pain the jabbed arm for the first 36 hours, had no other side effects at all. My fiance's friend did feel more tired than normal in the 48 hours after, but apart from that - nothing at all.

my wife also got hers Thursday. Same experience. She is 38. Congrats on getting yours. Assuming your bound for france tomorrow. Safe travels.