Let’s roll up our sleeves... and carry on jabbing

MY big brother John has had his second jab, and is dead chuffed.

He went into the vax centre in Wakefield singing “Good morning, good morning!!” and thanked the car-park volunteers standing out in the cold.

Mrs R and I still wait patiently for ours. John, 82, belongs to the Pfizerian tribe. We are Zenecans, like most round here.

But nobody I know is apprehensive about getting the Oxford A-Z vax, despite scare stories about blood clots on the brain after inoculation. No causal link between the two has been established and, even if one is found, I wouldn’t be put off getting Jab Two.

If the doctors are right – and I have no reason to disbelieve them – individuals have a 1 in 600,000 chance of developing a blood clot. Around 3,000 clots are diagnosed in the UK every month, so this is not much different to normal chances.

I would be massively more at risk of serious illness and death if I said “No” to the needle.

Thousands of people are still catching Covid-19 in the UK, and dozens still dying with it. It is running rife across continental Europe, and new variants are appearing all the time. This is not a moment to lose faith in the medical scientists. The death toll here is falling, but it’s still bigger than a Grenfell Tower tragedy every week.

Boris Johnson will today announce plans for vaccine certificates allowing us to attend public events. But it’s the death certificates I’m still worried about.

Vax passports raise a storm of criticism about civil liberties. For me, the right to bare arms for the jab is more important than any row about human rights.

Roll up our sleeves for Britain!