The Chief Medical Officer has welcomed the backing of the UK and Ireland s medical colleges after they said delaying the second dose of Covid vaccinations for medical staff is the right thing to do.
Earlier this month Tom Black GP said many doctors were horrified over plans to stall by 12 weeks the second dose of the Pfizer jab to front line staff.
After criticism of the UK-wide policy, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AMRC), the coordinating body for the UK and Ireland s 24 Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties, issued a statement backing delayed second doses yesterday.
Welcoming the intervention, Dr Michael McBride said: The UK-wide decision to reschedule second doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is in line with the authorisation and approval of the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) and expert advice of the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
But what Faculty lies behind the plans for adoption and economic expansion?
Lindsay Clark Fri 8 Jan 2021 // 15:59 UTC Share
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The UK s AI Council could not have picked a worse week to launch its roadmap. As the world s media was understandably obsessing with the US panto-cum-insurrection season, who would highlight its attempt to put this island nation, newly unshackled from the EU, on a path to a 10 per cent GDP boost from AI by 2030?
Observers might have hoisted a few red flags when they looked at who is behind the body, charged with providing independent input to the UK s AI strategy, expected to come from the Office for Artificial Intelligence (a joint unit between the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport).
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Neil Stone, a consultant at the University College London Hospitals Trust, tweeted: A very happy Christmas to everyone and especially all the #NHS workers - in particular our fantastic ID team (including Dr Michael Marks and Professor Chris Whitty) who will be on the wards so the rest of us can have a bit of time off! Next year will be better!
Professor Whitty was also said to have been spotted hard at work on the festive weekend by another source, The Independent reports.
The face of Professor Whitty has become familiar to many over the last year due to his presentations of Public Health data during Downing Street s coronavirus press conferences.