January 2021 - A View from the Hill

January 12, 2021January 29, 2023

New Variant Covid: It’s All About Aerosols

Woman's face, smoking (monochrome) — Covid-19 virus can be transmitted as an aerosol, like cigarette smoke.

There has been a lot of speculation about the ‘new variant’ of the Covid-19 virus. But how is it different and why? Is it really responsible for the intensity of this second wave of infections? And is the government really giving us the best advice to avoid infection?

January 7, 2021January 7, 2021

Through a Glass Darkly? Gambles and Barriers in the Vaccination Programme

Scientist holding a vial of the Pfizer vaccine — Photo: U.S. Secretary of Defense, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0,

The vaccination programme is finally being rolled out, which can only be good news. Here in Hastings, we were off to a slow start, with the public vaccination programme not getting underway till January 4th. But although we’re by no means the world’s fastest nation at getting the vaccination into recipients, it’s good to see the UK, for once, pretty quick off the mark. But is the decision to give only one dose and delay the booster dose the right thing to do? And with this ’one dose’ strategy, can we guarantee anywhere near the two million vaccinations a week that the government has promised?