[quote Blessex]@Haffiana that’s because we are in the middle of a fast moving pandemic. There is little evidence for anything. So we use the data we have. The best guesses we have. The knowledge we have. What is the alternative? We sit on our hands waiting for the perfect data? No no no[/quote]
@Blessex The important thing is that people are aware that there is no guarantee that a mixed dose vaccine will be effective.
This is not just something that affects the individual concerned. The stakes are far, far higher than that - a country needs to take those steps that best ensure that the country is protected, and that may or may not be the same as protecting the individual.
The country has different priorities than the individual such as financial priorities rather than health priorities. The gamble taken by changing dose regime is not a decision that is the best one for the individual, but is taken on behalf of the interests of the country.
This country has taken the path of claiming to be informed by the science, but then changing recommended dosing regimes despite an absence of science. This is a decision of pragmatism, of politics, not of science. A 'public health' POLITICAL decision, quite literally.
It isn't enough to talk about best guesses, because they are a moveable feast. The very best guess can be catastrophically wrong. It is madness to assume that because there is a national crisis that guesses are taken because that is all there is. No other country has taken the path that we have taken.
I am not personally against the choices the UK Government has made, but that doesn't change the fact that they are a gamble and not backed up by science.