COVID Vaccine !

[mjr]

Very very soon, honestly as @Buck says, this is moving at a scary pace!

What are you scared of?

 

[Ajax Bay]

Just dragging this across here from 'Chat' (Archie had wondered why on earth his teacher daughter (30) had not been jabbed earlier).

The rationale for not elevating various employment categories to a higher priority in the vaccination programme is based on data which show that, take primary school teachers, the risk of infection is minimally or no more than the risk in their local community generally, and that the IFR is best related to age (no UHC). Bus drivers, taxi drivers, security guards et al are far more vulnerable to infection compared with their peers.
Then consider the male v female risk differential and the BAME v white one as well. There's a general vaccine thread in the NACA sub-forum where such discussion can go beyond 'general chat'.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...ups-for-covid-19-vaccination-30-december-2020
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.22.20109892v2

Ajax, while the Government can produce all the statistics to prove whatever it likes, the hassle and disruption that coping with Covid infections in schools has caused, and continues to cause every day, means that children's education is being severely compromised every day. Primary teachers have to send whole classes home if they have one infected person in contact- if that person has had contact throughout the school the whole place shuts down. Many teachers are also vulnerable due to age and pre-existing conditions, so it would have made prefect sense to have vaccinated all school staff, which would have allowed them to teach more freely and to have put educating the children on a more 'normal' footing at the start of the vaccination programme. I suppose better late than never...

There is data to show that the risk of infection for school staff is between 1.5x and 7x greater than the general public depending on role but that the risk of death or severe disease is no greater than the population as a whole.
This is due to the severe consequences of covid being linked strongly to poverty and deprivation and not just to exposure.
The government could have gone with public facing occupations (not just teachers) as their rationale for rolling out the vaccination programme after groups 1 - 9 but went with age due to ease and speed of administering.

"The government could have gone with public facing occupations (not just teachers) as their rationale for rolling out the vaccination programme after groups 1 - 9 but went with age due to ease and speed of administering."
This ^^^ - see pages back in early March.

 

[Craig the cyclist]

What are you scared of?

Eh? Nothing at all.

I am just observing it is moving very very quickly, and that this shows they must have an amazing group of highly skilled, knowledgeable and dynamic individuals working tirelessly, 7 days a week, sorting this stuff out on a day to day basis to be able to contact and book and jab millions of people while ensuring everything is in the right place at the right time.

If nothing about the vaccine programme has excited you from a government perspective, you must surely agree that the people doing the do behind the programme have been absolutely awesome and deserve nothing but your un-tempered praise and gratitude?

 

[vickster]

Very very soon, honestly as @Buck says, this is moving at a scary pace!

Yes but Buck is in Yorkshire not SW London. I just wished to confirm if 37s being vaccinated is regional or national. It seems regional as the England NHS site only open to 38/39s.
A 37 year old colleague in NE London/Essex border has been invited by GP surgery so hopefully SW London isn’t too far behind

 

[Ajax Bay]

Anyone watched ‘jabbed’ on channel 4? Watching it now, very good IMO.

What struck me, and I'm willing to accept it might just have been good editing on the part of the filmmakers, was the ... the humanity of the Task Force key players. That is, in comparison with the weaseliness of their political counterparts.

@dodgy - thank you for highlighting. Recommended viewing for all those interested enough to open this thread, including @tom73
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/jabbed-inside-britains-vaccine-triumph

How different things could have been if the vaccines had developed at different rates.

But they weren't. I am sure you agree that we are lucky as a population that our politicians and scientists were clever enough to back the right horse eh?

VTF reads as if both clever and lucky: see this late 2020 Lancet article (author Kate Bingham): The UK Government’s Vaccine Taskforce: strategy for protecting the UK and the world.

 

[mjr]

Eh? Nothing at all.

I am just observing it is moving very very quickly, and that this shows [...]

No, you called the pace "scary", which implied that you expect something bad to result from the pace. I guess that was just a wrong word choice, rather than an attempt to line up an "I told you so" if someone makes a mistake in future.

If nothing about the vaccine programme has excited you from a government perspective, you must surely agree that the people doing the do behind the programme have been absolutely awesome and deserve nothing but your un-tempered praise and gratitude?

As you would know if you read my posts, I have posted repeatedly (two random examples, probably not the best) that the vaccination centres I've seen have been running well, as have those I've heard about, and all thanks to the staff and volunteers working at those.

I still will not praise the booking systems which were a confused (and, as discovered later, medical-privacy-leaking) mess at the time I used them.

 

[mjr]

The website is only booking 38-39s and she’s heard nothing from her GP. Hopefully 37s can book via website or online in the near future.

When I pointed out the website/online booking was unstable and its age limits differed from both what was announced and what GPs were doing, I was told by several people that I should have ignored the announcements in the media and waited for my GP to send me an invite, while others said I should have telephoned 119. One assured me that "Everyone will get offered a vaccination even if the website happens to be down".

 

[vickster]

The website is the same as what has been announced on the BBC.
There have always been differences between the national and regional roll out. I was invited by my GP before the website opened up to under 50s.
@Buck didn't make it immediately clear that the 37s were being contacted in his region and that it was not the national standard, which is now clear (hopefully my 37 y/o friend will be able to book soon either via GP or the website/119)

 

[Deleted User]

When I pointed out the website/online booking was unstable and its age limits differed from both what was announced and what GPs were doing, I was told by several people that I should have ignored the announcements in the media and waited for my GP to send me an invite, while others said I should have telephoned 119. One assured me that "Everyone will get offered a vaccination even if the website happens to be down".

Do whatever suits the individual, I booked on line when it was my age group's turn and then I got a letter as others did, some just waited for a letter, text or call from what I can gather?

Can't see a problem doing any of them as long as you get done.

 

[Ajax Bay]

When I pointed out the website/online booking was unstable and its age limits differed from both what was announced and what GPs were doing, I was told by several people that I should have ignored the announcements in the media and waited for my GP to send me an invite, while others said I should have telephoned 119. One assured me that "Everyone will get offered a vaccination even if the website happens to be down".

Not sure what you mean by "unstable" but you are an IT guru so I'm sure that's true, same as I assume (unless it seems clearly at variance with intuition) the knowledge freely shared by our various health care worker contributors is 'true'. The age limit thing is merely temporal.
The advice from "several people" was all valid (119 bit only if a citizen can't use the website: clearly you can/could). And the final assurance was correct too, for all normal people who are registered with their local GP.
The system by design or happy accident had a push (citizen with initiative and a little knowledge books online), a pull (letter from NHS inviting citizen to book - various means including phone), and a local 'own GP' text pull invite to book (local centre)). The UK vaccination programme is a massive jigsaw (in 4 dimensions?) with pieces differing in size by a magnitude (or two). Generating a reliable but controlled 'demand' is but one small part.
Glass two thirds full. Until it's not.
"The NHS will let you know when it's your turn to have the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination. The vaccine is being offered at larger vaccination centres, pharmacies and some local NHS services such as hospitals or GP surgeries."

 

[mjr]

Wallonia (Southern Belgium) today announced general availability of vaccines to anyone 18+ from Monday. Vaccination centres are lengthening opening times to 15 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. They are aiming to finish vaccinating adults by the start of July. https://www.rtbf.be/info/societe/on...vaccination-a-toute-la-population?id=10761318

This is one step further than France, which has announced a strange sort of availability-general-only-if-enough-vaccines-arrived-two-days-ahead that started yesterday. https://www.gouvernement.fr/info-coronavirus/vaccins

I didn't find out what Switzerland is doing.

 

[Ajax Bay]

A 'European' nation cases overview:
https://www.statista.com/statistics...ates-in-the-past-7-days-in-europe-by-country/
(Good bar chart)
"As of May 10, 2021 Sweden had the highest rate of COVID-19 cases reported in the previous seven days in Europe at 330 cases per 100,000. Cyprus, the Netherlands and Lithuania have recorded approximately 319, 300 and 292 cases per 100,000 people respectively in the last seven days. Since the pandemic outbreak, France has been the worst affected country in Europe with over 5.6 million cases as of May 2. The overall incidence of cases in every European country can be found here."
[Uk is on 22 per 100,000.]

 

[classic33]

Told earlier today that I should have told them at the vaccination centre that I'd heart issues/problem, and that I shouldn't have had the vaccine due to this. In effect my fault for not informing them and not answering questions that were never asked.

Quick search, tonight, got me this

You must seek urgent medical attention immediately if you have any of the following symptoms in the weeks after your injection:

• shortness of breath
  chest pain
  leg swelling
  persistent abdominal (belly) pain
  neurological symptoms, such as severe and persistent headaches or blurred vision
  tiny blood spots under the skin beyond the site of the injection.

I've had all bar the last since the injection. Current chest pain means they may not want to chance a second jab. But I'm out of this now, having declined the injection.

Was anyone asked if they had heart issues, before they had the jab?

https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/a...very-rare-cases-unusual-blood-clots-low-blood


I'll remind others of this part:
The benefits of the vaccine continue to outweigh the risks for people who receive it. The vaccine is effective at preventing COVID-19 and reducing hospitalisations and deaths.

 

[mjr]

Euronews TV reports Hungary now vaccinating 16+

Worrying survey suggests more than a quarter of EU adults may refuse vaccination
https://www.euronews.com/2021/05/14...ts-unlikely-to-get-covid-vaccine-survey-finds

Ireland's Health Service Executive has been shut down by ransomware but vaccination not yet affected https://www.thejournal.ie/hse-cyber-attack-5436981-May2021/

 

[lane]

Had my second Pfizer last Saturday and the past three days have been really quite unpleasant, struggling to get out of bed for much at all for a couple of days and while feeling quite a bit better today neck is still very painful. The symptoms are mainly the listed side effects but the severity has been a surprise. As bad a the proper flu I had s few years ago but just for a couple of days rather than two weeks. Didn't really have much in the way of side effects after first Jab. Still very glad to have had both jabs especially in view of today's news; also don't intend to put anyone off its obviously a good idea to get fully vaccinated even if a bit unlucky with side effects.