Thats the problem when politicians try to become medics and scientists and vice versa. The pandemic should not be used to score political points unfortunately it is. Whatever colour of Government was in office it would still have the same medics and scientists advising them with the same mistakes occurring.
I prepared medics for the witness box for years and spent many hours in consultation with them. One key feature of their mentality and make up was that away from the pressures of the Court they were certain that their prognosis was accurate. In the witness box they invariably crumbled and fell back to the balance of probabilities argument. Thats exactly what medical opinion is. Its never certain but at least medics and scientists spend time doing their research and have some element of facts to back them up.
Contrast that with politicians who pick up one issue from an article that supports their political point of view, embellish it and it suddenly becomes fact as Boothroyd has done in this instance. She is correct that the Pfizer vaccine did not have clinical trials that supported the second jab being given 12 weeks apart. They've said as much in the last few days so Boothroyd is not telling us anything new.
If Betty had done proper research she would have known the Astra Zenica vaccine did a study in their phase 3 trials, albeit small in size, that indicated giving the second jab over a long period actually increased the efficacy from 70 to 80%. Whether this is a sufficient sized sample to prove this is a matter of debate. The fact that a number of leading scientists the CMO, the JVCI and the MHRA have signed this off would suggest there is sufficient authority supporting using the Oxford vaccine in this way. The Pfizer vaccine is a different matter and I for one would be uncomfortable being given the second dose of this vaccine after 12 weeks.
Finally anyone who believes Blair had any influence over this decision doesn't understand how Government works although no doubt he will try and dine out on this for the next year or two.