[smileypete]

The study found that effectiveness dropped to 80% for patients over the age of 65, while for younger patients, the vaccines were 95% effective.

Let that sink in for a moment...

The best way to boost overall vaccine effectiveness is to extend it lower risk groups - healthy children and young people - regardless of whether they really need it or not.

[Andys]

Isnt that only true if your goal just to make the numbers look good?

How does changing the average effectiveness on paper actually change how much it's helping an individual in one of the given groups?

[smileypete]

For the low risk groups it's a small absolute risk reduction of hospitalisation, and extremely small absolute risk reduction of death. But given that herd immunity is now impossible to achieve, the long term impact on the high risk groups will be limited.

I expect what could see is stubbornly elevated hospitalization and deaths in the high risk groups :( Bad for them but also bad because the way that politicians trying to drive health policy under mistaken assumptions will react.