This is why you can’t choose which Covid vaccine you receive

In a show of support for the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab – which more than a dozen European countries, including Ireland, have stopped using – the Prime Minister has said he will be receiving his soon.

Boris Johnson told MPs: “I finally got news that I’m going to have my own jab very shortly, [and] I’m pleased to discover it will certainly be Oxford/AstraZeneca that I will be having.”

Sweden and Latvia became the latest nations to follow countries including Germany, France, Italy, and Spain in temporarily suspending AstraZeneca jabs this week, in light of a small number of reports of bleeding, blood clots and low blood platelet counts.

Experts continue to stress the vaccine remains safe and effective for use, and that there is no evidence at this time of a link between the vaccine and the development of blood clots.

But do you have a choice in the matter? Can you pick and choose which of the currently approved vaccines you are injected with if you have worries about a particular one?

Here is everything you need to know about it.

Can you choose which vaccine to have?

No.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has not advised a preference between the Pfizer-BioNTech, the Oxford-AstraZeneca or any other vaccines in the UK population, stating that "both give very high protection against severe disease... and both vaccines have good safety profiles".

The UK’s vaccine programme is offering vaccines in line wi