Honesty is the best policy, yet medics must redouble efforts to reassure Britons that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and that the real danger is not being jabbed when Covid-19 is a mass killer.
The offering of alternative doses to the under-30s because of extremely rare blood clots – 79 cases and 19 deaths, including three people aged under 30, were detected – is a cautious approach set against more than 20million inoculations with the drug.
We should welcome the UK regulator being more interventionist than its European equivalent.
But boosting vaccine confidence must now be a priority to overcome any hesitancy.
The benefits of jabs vastly outweigh the risks for the overwhelming majority of adults.
Tweaking the mass vaccination programme is a responsible, transparent move and the overall message to stress is: Carry On Jabbing.
Gavin a laugh
Even the unruliest pupil is not as disruptive for schools as Gavin Williamson, an Education Secretary incapable of opening his mouth without putting his foot in it.
His bad behaviour includes exam fiascos and forcing schools to reopen then shutting them immediately.
Such an appalling record would result in him being expelled as a teenager or sacked as a head.
That he survives in Cabinet underlines the poor judgment of Boris Johnson, who surrounds himself with failures and incompetents.
Wanting to micro-manage schools from Whitehall is foolish.
Most primaries and many secondaries already ban mobile phone use in school time.
A good Education Secretary would support head teachers, not dictate to them.
The serious “discipline and order” problem is the behaviour of Williamson himself.
