Why I’m considering cancelling my second Covid jab

I am considering cancelling my second Covid-19 vaccination. I received my first jab in March, and at the time I happily booked the date for the second one in June, confident that by then we would be continuing to see a fall in infections.

But last week the story changed. The B.1.617.2 variant, first identified in India, could, according to Sage minutes, be 50 per cent more transmissible than the variant identified in Kent. Early numbers suggest we could be at the start of an exponential growth in infections. The lesson of the past year is that if you wait to act until you’re certain of the data, you’re too late in changing your plans. Here, therefore, are four areas to consider now.

In the race between vaccines and the virus, we are still constrained by supply, so wouldn’t it be better if people who, like me, have already had Covid cancelled our second jabs and waited for the planned autumn booster, thereby allowing others to have their first shot instead? While when infections were very low it made sense not to use the AstraZeneca shot for the under-thirties, this decision might need revisiting if infections rise.