Public happy with Oxford jab

BLOOD clots linked to the Oxford Covid vaccine have had virtually no effect whatsoever on public confidence, an exclusive poll for the Mail reveals.

The number of people who say they would be unlikely to or would refuse to have a jab has gone down by 1 per cent since the concerns emerged.

Among under-30s – the group most at risk – the number who take this view has gone up by a minuscule one percentage point. Among the millions who have had their first Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, just one in 50 will refuse a second one.

Seven out of ten parents say they would be happy for their children to have it. The findings are among the results of the first major poll conducted since UK health regulators concluded the AstraZeneca vaccine was a ‘reasonably plausible’ cause of 79 cases of unusual blood clots, including 19 deaths.

As a result, the NHS cancelled thousands of appointments for those aged 18 to 29 who were due their first dose.

The findings of the JL Partners survey for the Daily Mail will bring comfort to Boris Johnson and his medical and scientific advisers. They insist the vaccines are safe and form a vital part of Government plans to lift the lockdown and get back to normal as soon as possible.

Just 6 per cent would either be unlikely to or would refuse to be vaccinated – a fall of one percentage point since a similar poll in February. Of this 6 per cent, just one in three say their reason for not wanting the vaccine is because of worries about blood clots.

That means only 2 per cent have had their faith in getting jabbed dented by this week’s developments.

The other 4 per cent are concerned about the ‘general health risk’ of vaccines – or do not believe they will be at risk from Covid even if they contract it.