Chris

Something other than what they’re actually doing

To reiterate - there is nothing new here. Oxford’s trial group was tilted towards younger test subjects. This was widely known from quite early on. The calculations the German regulator has done, and has published, are plain silly, and TBH they just look like an extension of the cack-handed smear campaign someone in the German government was obviously trying to perpetrate last week.

It pays not to underestimate the scale of the PR crisis we have caused for the EU and most importantly for its principal member states by getting so far ahead with our vaccine campaign. We have shown them and the EU up and there is nothing they can do at present to catch up with us. All they can do is to try to create a scenario where we are wasting our effort and they can say it’s better to do it right than do it fast.

Repeat until you’re blue in the face: this vaccine has not been developed in a vacuum. If it works (and it does), it can be expected to have certain characteristics. This is in part what gave the government confidence to press ahead with the longer dosage interval - a decision now backed by hard data. It is also what gives the necessary confidence to use it in older patients. Vaccine efficacy does not typically drop off a cliff in the way it would have to do for it to suddenly be so unsuitable to use in anyone over 65. And in the case of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the antibody response data that does exist is typical for what would be expected from a vaccine working as hoped, and adds to the confidence that it is efficacious in that age group.

But of course, if you choose instead to be taken in by smear campaigns designed by governments that are actually failing their citizens, and are actively attempting to misdirect them, rather than vaccinate them, that is your privilege.