Defensive midfielder
JVT, a Boston United fan, compared the vaccination program to defensive football players whose job was to “watch everyone’s back.”
At a Downing Street press conference, he said: “A bit like a football match where the strikers who score the wonder goals are the ones who grab the headlines. In fact, the biggest jobs are done by defenders and by the defensive midfielders who follow retrace 90 minutes of the entire match, monitoring everyone.
“That’s what it’s going to be about now, going back and making sure we finish the job properly in the phase one cohorts before we move on.”
Grand National
He compared the pandemic to the Aintree horse race when he warned Britain may not fall at the final fence.
“The effects of the vaccine are going to take three months before we properly observe them, and until then no one can relax,” he told The Sun.
“We are probably in the last 400 meters of this race – like in the Grand National. We just have a few more fences left, we just have to stick with it.
Penalties
Football is a tool commonly used by JVT to explain Britain’s progress in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
He once described the development of the Pfizer vaccine as reaching penalties at the end of the play-off final.
“So it’s like… get to the end of the play-off final, it goes to penalties, the first player goes up and scores a goal.
“You haven’t won the cup yet, but that tells you the goalkeeper can be beaten.”
Landing a plane
Progress in the vaccine rollout has been compared to different means of transport, including a plane arriving on land.
JVT said: “Do I believe we are now on track to land this plane? Yes I do.
“Do I accept that sometimes when you’re on the glide path you can get a side wind and the landing isn’t totally straightforward, totally manual? Of course.’
Crowded trains
JVT said the pandemic was like waiting for a train on a platform, with the lights “far out”.
He said: “For me it’s like a train journey, it’s wet, it’s windy, it’s horrible.
“Two miles from the train tracks, two lights appear and it’s the train and it’s far away and here we are. This is the result of efficiency.
“Then we hope the train will safely slow down to enter the station, that’s the safety data, and then the train will stop.”
“And at that point the doors don’t open, the guard has to make sure it’s safe to open the doors.” It’s the MHRA, it’s the regulator.
He said the train was the vaccine, and he hoped that when it was ready there would not be “an ungodly jostle for seats.”
“The JCVI has made it clear which people need seats most and they are the ones who should get on the train first.”
Red card
JVT said Brits should avoid receiving a “red card” from the Omicron coronavirus variant by receiving a booster shot.
He said: “Omicron, it feels like now we are picking up a few yellow cards to key players at the top. We might be doing well, but we’re kind of starting to feel at risk of going down to 10 players and if that happens – or if that’s a risk that’s going to happen – then we need everyone on the field improves his game in the meantime.
“We are not going to wait for the red card to come, we are going to act decisively now and we are asking everyone to up their game, we are asking everyone to play their part in the urgency of the recall program, to come as soon as you are called by the NHS.
Yogurt
Explaining the extreme temperature at which the coronavirus vaccine must be stored, JVT said it is not like yogurt.
He added: “This is a complex product. It’s not a yogurt that you can take out of the refrigerator and put back in several times.
And other famous moments…
When he tore off his shirt
The professor ripped off his shirt and tie, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
Professor Van-Tam was hosting the Royal Institution’s Christmas lectures on BBC Four when he tore off his shirt and tie, disappeared in a cloud of smoke – and reappeared in slightly less formal attire, wearing a blue shirt more relaxed under his jacket.
The stunt sparked a typical reaction on social media, with one account comparing JVT – as he is widely known – to Steve Coogan’s comic character Alan Partridge.
When he calmly treated an anti-vaccine
JVT remained completely calm and responded politely to an anti-vaxxer who insulted him in Westminster last June.
Geza Tarjanyi, 60, from Leyland, Lancashire, targeted the deputy chief medical officer as he entered the Ministry of Defense building.
He said, “Are you Van-Tam, right?” What was really in that needle you inserted into Matt Hancock? Why do you continually lie to the British people? Why are you smiling? This country is supposedly experiencing the worst pandemic ever.
Professor Van-Tam politely replied, “That’s true. » And when, following a new torrent of insults, the anti-vaccine asked JVT if he was listening, the expert replied: “What? I find that difficult.
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