Get a COVID-19 vaccination!

As of the end of November 2020, the UK Government have ordered 357 million doses of seven of the vaccine-candidates that offer protection against COVID-19. All of these (and many, many others, possible totalling over 100 being developed world-wide) are undergoing rigorous clinical trials, and some are being manufactured and stock-piled by pharmaceutical companies pending approval by regulatory authorities. The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (announced on 2nd December 2020) and it is expected that at least ONE of the other seven that our government has ordered will pass the stringent approval criteria in the next 14 days, making at least two available “soon” for use in the population as a whole. Vaccine roll-out is expected to begin with the very vulnerable (the over-80’s, and also possibly those living in care homes) and front-line NHS staff and dentists. The process will then be progressively offered to others, to cover as many people as possible in a very quick timescale.

Vaccines are one of the strategies that are available in the fight against COVID-19 (we need to remember “hands, face, space” and other precautions). No vaccine is 100% effective. Two of selected seven have registered an effectiveness of over 90%, whilst another, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine reputedly gives protection to 70% of recipients, rising to 90% if 1½ doses are administered (don’t ask – I have no idea why!). Scientific evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of the population as a whole being given vaccines for ‘standard’ diseases – it is not my intention here to point to that evidence. In the last 15 years, enormous strides have been made in the elimination of Polio as a disease, due in a large part to the campaigning and (yes, very importantly) the money of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This once-prevalent disease has now all-but been wiped out – it is no longer out there in the whole of Africa. Two of the last countries to have this scourge are Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mass vaccination gives what is called ‘herd immunity’; it is often quoted that there needs to be a vaccination rate of 86% - 89% for diseases such as measles to give herd immunity. No-one knows what the required coverage is to build-up this level of societal coverage for COVID-19 – because of the ease of transmission, a figure into the low 90’s in percentage terms may be required. Just as no-one knows how long immunity will last after an individual has been vaccinated. (Incidentally, there may have been a spike in cases of measles and tragically, deaths from this disease in 2020 because of the difficulties with standard vaccinations in this peculiar year).

When receiving any vaccination, some discomfort may result. This very week, I received a pneumonia jab (until 10 days ago, I was not aware that this even existed) and had a reaction not so much to the vaccination but to the process of vaccination which revealed yet again a susceptibility that I have – but this was minor. We need to think beyond the minor inconveniences and consider herd immunity. You receiving the COVID-19 jab will make you safer – but it will also make me safer, and those that are frail and especially vulnerable in our midst. It will also protect NHS workers, those living and working in care homes and (because of the ease and speed of transmission of this dreadful disease in the whole world) elderly and vulnerable people in Swindon, Nottingham, Glasgow, Paris and beyond.

There are many at best misleading and at worst downright untrue items published about the perils of the COVID-19 vaccination. That the COVID-19 jab will fundamentally alter the human DNA (it won’t), that the vaccine contains microchips so that Bill Gates will be able to track your every move (it doesn’t), that the registration number of the patent for the vaccine is 60666 – the ‘number of the beast’. Some of the claims are backed up by scriptural references and so-called academics. If you hear these and other scare stories, check them out. Search the internet for articles that critique the views and see if the evidence stacks up. Some of the wild claims come out of right-wing politics in America – where, as you will have seen, even the wearing of face masks became a huge political act in the recent Presidential election. The BBC program ‘Panorama’ looked into the three claims I have mentioned and pointed to good, solid scientific facts to highlight massive holes in the ‘scientific facts’ alluded to in some of the claims.

I think that we all have a duty to ourselves, to those around us, to our loved ones and to the dedicated staff that have worked night and day (for weeks and months on end) to short-circuit the often 8 to 10 years required to produce viable, approved vaccines. That duty is to get vaccinated. As soon as possible. If for no-one else’s sake, do it for me. I am in the over-65’s age range. 90% of the deaths directly attributable to COVID-19 in the UK are in my age range. Don’t get the vaccination only to protect yourself. Do it to protect me. My wife, family, friends, former colleagues and my loving Heavenly Father think that I am worth it!