Vaccines

If the mainstream media were hoping to learn from the mistakes of 2016, there were plenty of lessons for them to revisit. Unfortunately, the elites that pontificated on network news channels and in Washington Post thinkpieces had zero interest in understanding why they got Trump’s election so wrong. To do that, they would have needed both self-awareness and humility. Because they lack both, nothing improved. In fact, things have only gotten worse. Four years of hair-on-fire reporting about Trump’s tweets, a Russian hoax, two impeachments and dozens of 'anonymous’ sources later, the activists in journalists’ clothing finally got their way. Joe Biden, the basement candidate, was elected president.

After the JCVI recommended against offering vaccines to children aged 12 to 15 on health grounds, the government asked the four chief medical officers to consider the broader case, including the impact on schooling. As we know, the government has now accepted the chief medical officers’ recommendation: that all 12 to 15 year olds should be offered one dose of Pfizer on the grounds that doing so will reduce disruption to education. The government has released details of the modelling that underpins that rationale. The approach was first to estimate the number of infections with and without vaccination under different scenarios of infection spread. Next, they used this to model the number of days of lost education that could be prevented by vaccination.

Last week, President Joe Biden announced a blizzard of new executive orders. He effectively mandated COVID vaccines for the entire federal workforce as well as all federal contractors and anyone who works at a company that has more than 100 employees. He didn't consult Congress on any of this even though — and this is what truly separates the boys from the caudillos — both Houses are controlled by his own party. So while we still technically live in a free country, it looks a bit different than it did before. The executive branch is Joe Biden, the legislative branch is the multiple Joe Bidens Joe Biden sees in the mirror just after taking his prescription Zestril, and the judicial branch is when Joe Biden lurches awake at 3 a.m. barking 'I am the law!

This afternoon, the JCVI has essentially passed the buck on vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds. It has declared that the health benefits of a vaccine for this age group are ‘marginally greater' than the risks of Covid. But it has left the decision on whether to actually vaccinate them to the chief medical officers. It would surely have been better for the committee to have made a decision one way or the other In the past few weeks, tensions between ministers and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation have been rising. Ministers are keen to get on with an autumn booster shots campaign for the elderly and to vaccinate more school children. Yet the JCVI has only approved boosters for those with weaker immune systems.

How fast does Covid vaccine protection wear off? New data from the Zoe Covid Study, published today, tries to quantify the extent to which the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines wane over time. It’s a comprehensive study that accounts for PCR test data from over a million double-jabbed people. The results? After roughly six months, Pfizer protection against symptomatic illness fell from 88 per cent to 74 per cent. For AstraZeneca, it was a dip from 77 to 67 per cent after around five months. It’s important to note what, specifically, this study is measuring. It is a look at infections, not serious illness.

Don’t let this relatively Fauci-free week fool you. The Biden administration is still laser-focused on the coronavirus. In fact, as reporters waited anxiously to ask the President about stranded American civilians in Kabul and Afghans falling from Air Force planes, Baghdad Biden stumbled through a teleprompter address about vaccines and left without taking a single question. America is back! In his brief remarks, the President assured the American people that he would stand tough against the Taliban. Oops sorry, scratch that. The President assured us that he would stand tough against Republican governors. See, these red state politicians are 'setting a dangerous tone', according to Joe.

It is already known that there will be a campaign of booster shots in the UK this autumn to boost immunity among the over-50s. But it now looks like the government is planning one for autumn 2022 as well. Steven Swinford reports in the Times today that the UK has ordered 35 million doses from Pfizer for next year. The number of doses ordered suggests that the government wants to have the option in 2022 of giving a booster shot to everyone in clinical groups 1-9: the over-50s. Swinford reports that the government was prompted to act, in part, by the fact that the EU has already placed an order for 900 million Pfizer shots over the next two years. It seems likely that richer countries will go down the booster shot route in the coming months.