Sir John Bell: ‘Most people who have had the Covid vaccine are completely safe’

theguardian.com:

Sir John Bell, the Canadian immunologist, is a familiar sight to locals along the stretch of the Thames near his home in Wallingford, just outside Oxford, where he and his wife can often be seen rowing in a double scull.

During the pandemic, Bell’s voice became familiar to millions of radio listeners too. As news broke that a viable Covid-19 vaccine was on its way, following successful trials by Pfizer and BioNTech, Bell was asked on BBC Radio 4 whether the world would now return to normal. His response was an emphatic “yes, yes, yes”. His words not only lifted spirits: they moved markets.

As regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, and an early member of the government’s vaccine taskforce who had worked on Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine with AstraZeneca, the 69-year-old’s words carried weight. Last December, he confidently predicted that Omicron was “not the same disease we were seeing a year ago” and that high Covid death rates in the UK were “now history”.

Speaking to the Observer in a restaurant on Oxford’s high street, sipping a cup of tea, Bell is still upbeat. “The vaccines have had a very powerful and durable effect on death … most people who have had the vaccine are completely safe,” he says. “People dying now, since last July, are

Age 69

Family Married with three children.

Education Attended Ridley College in St Catharines, Ontario; studied medicine at the University of Alberta, graduating in 1975; Rhodes Scholar in medicine at Oxford University; postgraduate training in London and at Stanford University.

Last holiday “So long ago I can’t remember. Off to Canada this summer.”

Best advice he’s been given “If you believe in something, never give up.”

Biggest career mistake Trying to help modernise