I LIKE to think I’m a patient and thoughtful man (others who know me may disagree but we’re all entitled to our opinion), so I have been cutting some slack to those who fall into the ‘vaccine hesitant’ category.

You know the ones I mean, those people who are unsure whether or not to be vaccinated against Covid-19, a virus that according to the Office for National Statistics has been responsible at least in part for 153,000 deaths in the UK.

At this point, I want to make it clear that I’m not confusing the hesitant with the anti-vaxxers who are just a bunch of pandemic-denying fruitloops.

Anyway, I’m now beginning to lose patience.

I’ve had both of my AstraZeneca jabs and would be very happy to have a Pfizer or Moderna booster in autumn. In fact, I actually tried to sign up for the booster clinical trial but I didn’t quite meet the criteria over vaccination timing.

My family all had their vaccinations at the earliest possible opportunity and in truth, I don’t know anyone who has turned down the jab when it’s been offered. Most people I know walked out of the vaccination centre with a tear of relief in their eye and a smile of gratitude on their face.

But it appears there are a lot of apparently intelligent people out there who aren’t taking up the offer of vaccination.

I don’t get it.

Of course, whether or not you decide to get the jab is a matter of personal choice. You are quite entitled to make up your own mind – it’s your health and your body – and I, for one, wouldn’t seek to argue you out of your decision if you elect to refuse a jab.

I understand the vaccines are new and no one knows what the long-term effects may or may not be. I also understand that some groups don’t trust the government (I don’t particularly trust the government either so that one gets a little bit of sympathy from me).

But I did my own personal cost-benefit analysis. I weighed up factors such as my age, weight (which is a bit problematic) and general health in the face of a virus that kills older, fatter, unhealthier people. I then balanced that against unknown and unknowable potential issues in the future.

My decision was to deal with the threat of an airborne virus that was a clear and present danger to my health by getting vaccinated.

Of course, not everyone shares my view, as evidenced by MP Nadhim Zahawi, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for Covid-19 vaccine deployment.

Mr Zahawi took the Downing Street podium to tell the vaccine hesitant to get vaccinated. He then repeated that message and continued to repeat the message over and over again, as did the two medical experts he had with him.

And for good measure, he repeated the message a couple more times at the end, vowing that the government would spare no efforts to persuade the hesitant to stop hesitating.

And it was at that point my patience ran out. It ran out with Zahawi, it ran out with the medical experts, it ran out with the government and it ran out with the vaccine hesitant.

Surely now the time has come, as the song from the film Frozen says, to let it go. If people don’t want to be vaccinated, so be it. It’s their funeral, maybe literally.

But as my dad used to say when I was in trouble, actions have consequences (in the case of the vaccine hesitant, inaction has consequences).

Stop chasing after the hesitant and concentrate on the vaccinated. By all means, keep the offer of vaccination available to all 18 and overs, but open up society to the double jabbed, fully open up cinemas, pubs and restaurants to the double jabbed and open up international travel to the double jabbed.

Otherwise, what’s the point of being vaccinated?

Vaccine passports anyone?