Jonathan Van-Tam—your favourite uncle, or evil manipulator of the unwary?

It's make your mind up time...

Van-Tam and Metaphors ‘R Us

“The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor.”

—Aristotle

Clearly, Van-Tam has been following Aristotle’s advice! Here he is banging a few out:

‘Wham Bam thank you, Tam’: Jonathan Van-Tam goes to great metaphorical lengths to explain vaccine rollout

"It's the Play-Off Final and it's gone to penalties. We've stepped up and scored the first one. It doesn't mean we've won the cup, but it shows the keeper can be beaten. That's basically where we're at in the fight against coronavirus", he said.

Asked again about suggestions the vaccine could lead to a return to normal next spring, Prof Van-Tam refused to be derailed - using a train analogy.

He said: “This to me is like a train journey, it’s wet, it’s windy, it’s horrible. And two miles down the tracks two lights appear and it’s the train and it’s a long way off and we’re at that point at the moment. That’s the efficacy result.

“Then we hope the train slows down safely to get into the station, that’s the sa…