We are being "encouraged" to wear a mask

Quoted from Mrbump53

All vaccines approved for use in the UK are not considered experimental as they cannot be approved until they go through a set process. The speed of approval was due to all stages of the research being funded and analysis of effects done as the research stage progressed. A number of vaccines were discontinued due the research stages.

Slight side effects only reported in 11% of all doses administered and less than 1% have resulted in serious side effects. All vaccines have side effects and some more than others. The covid vaccines do not stand out above the normal levels of side effects.

I am not disagreeing with you here but I wanted to correct one line: "the speed of approval was due to all stages of the research being funded.."

The vast majority of drug discovery and development in the UK is done by pharmaceutical and bioscience companies who fund trials all the way through. Funding has no impact on the speed of being granted a license. The speed of the vaccine's license was primarily because of the significant need and expected impact on the disease. This is standard practice if a drug is expected to have a major impact on a disease and there are a number of examples of drugs being granted a license more quickly than would be the normal case. They still have to provide satisfactory trial data that shows the impact on the disease and safety in human subjects. They also have to pass the 'benefit outweighs the risk' equation.

The key steps that the vaccines had to get over were proving safety and antibody response.

You will recall that one of the candidate vaccines was originally known as the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine. It was developed at Oxford University but AZ picked it up very quickly and AZ will have funded most, if not all work on the vaccine from the moment they had the rights to it. That vaccine became the Astra Zeneca vaccine when it's license was granted.

Drug development can be slowed because of a lack of funding to publicly funded laboratories (like universities) but this is not part of the licensing process, this is further back in the development cycle. But, many promising drugs in development get sold to pharmaceutical companies who either fund the research or move the research into their own R+D centres where funding is not an issue. Very few promising compounds fail due to a lack of funding.

"The vast majority of drug discovery and development in the UK is done by pharmaceutical and bioscience companies who fund trials all the way through. Funding has no impact on the speed of being granted a license. The speed of the vaccine's license was primarily because of the significant need and expected impact on the disease."

This may be true in normal circumstances but recent research has highlighted

"The overwhelming majority of the money, especially in the early stages of the research, came from UK government departments, British and American scientific institutes, the European commission and charities including the Wellcome Trust."

"At least 97% of the funding for the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has been identified as coming from taxpayers or charitable trusts"

This is most likely due to the promise that the vaccine would be provided at cost of production and not general market sale prices.

Quoted from Mrbump53

"The vast majority of drug discovery and development in the UK is done by pharmaceutical and bioscience companies who fund trials all the way through. Funding has no impact on the speed of being granted a license. The speed of the vaccine's license was primarily because of the significant need and expected impact on the disease."

This may be true in normal circumstances but recent research has highlighted

"The overwhelming majority of the money, especially in the early stages of the research, came from UK government departments, British and American scientific institutes, the European commission and charities including the Wellcome Trust."

"At least 97% of the funding for the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has been identified as coming from taxpayers or charitable trusts"

This is most likely due to the promise that the vaccine would be provided at cost of production and not general market sale prices.

I agree 100%. The vaccine was primarily developed at Oxford University. I would assume (but don't know) that AZ were needed for production and distribution, particularly for the scale of the task.

That said, the vaccines are almost unique in the way they have been approved and brought to market in a very short period of time. But that speed was never about funding.

Oxford were apparently planning to partner with Merck to develop the vaccine, a company have a lot of experience with vaccine trials, production and so forth (their own Covid vaccine attempts didn't work, however). However, the UK government nixed this (one of the things they did right with the pandemic), as they realised that Merck was a US company and the Yanks would basically keep any successes with the vaccine to themselves until they had all they needed. Unfortunately, AZ didn't have any experience with vaccines which explains some of the missteps in the trials and general problems with the rollout.

A real pity that the bloodclot issues arose with the AZ vaccine as, without them, we'd all have been fully vaccinated a month or two ago and Delta would probably have mostly been squashed in the UK.

Quoted from Maringer

Oxford were apparently planning to partner with Merck to develop the vaccine, a company have a lot of experience with vaccine trials, production and so forth (their own Covid vaccine attempts didn't work, however). However, the UK government nixed this (one of the things they did right with the pandemic), as they realised that Merck was a US company and the Yanks would basically keep any successes with the vaccine to themselves until they had all they needed. Unfortunately, AZ didn't have any experience with vaccines which explains some of the missteps in the trials and general problems with the rollout.

A real pity that the bloodclot issues arose with the AZ vaccine as, without them, we'd all have been fully vaccinated a month or two ago and Delta would probably have mostly been squashed in the UK.

Or not?

The vaccine rollout will be used a political weapon but doesn’t and shouldn’t make up for the incompetent government.

I’m short, and in answer to the original question…if you wanna wear a mask, wear one, if you don’t, then don’t. It’s your choice…simples.

Quoted from aldi_01

Or not?

The vaccine rollout will be used a political weapon but doesn’t and shouldn’t make up for the incompetent government.

I’m short, and in answer to the original question…if you wanna wear a mask, wear one, if you don’t, then don’t. It’s your choice…simples.

What has your height got to do with this? I'm not particularly tall myself but it doesn't influence my views on mask wearing.

Reading between the lines, the JCVI advice that kids aged 12 and above don't need to be vaccinated is at least partially based on the fact that we don't have enough mRNA doses on order coming in to vaccinate them, at least not for some months. We delayed placing another order with Pfizer after our initial order which is now being used up for second doses for adults and the EU got in a 600 million dose order before us. The vaccine rollout has been a success so far, but watch the EU countries overtake us over the next few months and a number of European countries are already vaccinating kids aged 12 to 17 now. Quite possibly the explanation as to why our government has decided to let it rip amongst kids and young adults - another political decision, of course.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

What has your height got to do with this? I'm not particularly tall myself but it doesn't influence my views on mask wearing.

I think there is still debate about whether tall people are more at risk at catching Covid than us more vertically challenged.

If transmission is from large droplets falling to the floor, smaller people would be more at risk.

If it is more aerosol driven, the particles will linger in the jet stream of a strapping six footer, so they can swallow them all up like a hungry basking shark.

Either way, it’s about time tall people took a long look in the mirror.

Quoted from Maringer

Reading between the lines, the JCVI advice that kids aged 12 and above don't need to be vaccinated is at least partially based on the fact that we don't have enough mRNA doses on order coming in to vaccinate them, at least not for some months. We delayed placing another order with Pfizer after our initial order which is now being used up for second doses for adults and the EU got in a 600 million dose order before us. The vaccine rollout has been a success so far, but watch the EU countries overtake us over the next few months and a number of European countries are already vaccinating kids aged 12 to 17 now. Quite possibly the explanation as to why our government has decided to let it rip amongst kids and young adults - another political decision, of course.

As of July 21st Belgium, Spain and Denmark were very close to our vaccination numbers. Italy, Germany and France were not far behind. All of them are currently accelerating their vaccination rate while the UK's has slowed significantly.
Iceland and Malta are already ahead of us but have a far smaller population.

It won't be months. It'll be a couple of weeks.

Sources: Our World in Data. http://www.statista.com

Quoted from Knut Anders Fosters Voles

I think there is still debate about whether tall people are more at risk at catching Covid than us more vertically challenged.

If transmission is from large droplets falling to the floor, smaller people would be more at risk.

If it is more aerosol driven, the particles will linger in the jet stream of a strapping six footer, so they can swallow them all up like a hungry basking shark.

Either way, it’s about time tall people look a long look in the mirror.

You're not taking into account head size (oo er matron) and size of chin. A big 'ead or Hill like facial protrusion means that masks cover a smaller surface area (proportionally) whilst tiny faced hobbits have a far larger area tarpaulined.

In Lidl and at the Petunia Growers Cooperative I immediately make for the tiny faced so as to increase my relative level of safety.