Above is the headline that’s been pushed by the BBC news channel over the last couple of days. Here’s what the BBC Futures website has to say on the subject (Note: BBC Futures is run by BBC Global News, a commercial company owned by the BBC but which reinvests its earnings into international journalism)…
“There are two factors,” …. “We’ve got lockdowns and a vaccine. So, it’s actually quite difficult to separate them out. Is it the vaccine? Is it the lockdown, or more likely a combination of both?”
Now here’s what the BMJ (British Medical Journal) have been telling us about the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine after a single dose…
“Covid-19: Pfizer vaccine efficacy was 52% after first dose and 95% after second dose, paper shows”
Also, here’s an interesting article in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) talking about the efficacy of the Astra Zenaca vaccine in general…
“vaccine efficacy reached 82.4% after a second dose in those with a dosing interval of 12 weeks or more (95% confidence interval 62.7% to 91.7%). If the two doses were given less than six weeks apart the efficacy was only 54.9% (CI 32.7% to 69.7%).
The government might have an interest in pushing an optimistic narrative as it’s politically favourable for them to do so. Optimism always provides a sizeable boost in the polls and if they’re keen to bring us out if lockdown as quickly as possible then it couldn’t hurt their cause to reassure people that it’s safer to return to the shark infested waters, could it?
The thing is, either the BBC knows something that the scientists don’t know or they’ve misinterpreted the information or, worse still, they’re being told to put an optimistic spin on things by the government. In any case, false or misleading information can be extremely dangerous in a pandemic and if they’ve got this wrong then the BBC could be considered partially responsible for the potential consequences as people start to relax their guard and take more risks, assuming that it’s safe to do so after taking just 1 dose.
