COVID Vaccine !

[roubaixtuesday]

Considering the level of justifiable criticism of the UK government on CC in terms of its overall response to the pandemic it's interesting that there is little recognition of how well it is doing regarding vaccinations

No major hiccups in a complex rollout and vaccination levels are fourth highest in the world. Currently 3x-4x that of our European neighbours

It's also interesting that UK has one of the highest public acceptance rates for vaccination. China is highest at 80% but UK is v close behind. Bizzarely France is at 40% suggesting extreme scepticism of the vaccine. Wonder why a country not so disimmilar from other developed western economies can have such a low potential take up

I agree the govt vaccine programme to date has been excellent

The problem is that they've disdained scientific advice to the extent that the virus is now quite likely to rip through much of the population ahead of vaccination.

You can't outrun exponential virus growth with a linear vaccine programme.

We are now in an absolutely dire position. The delay in response to post - November lock down growth may cost as many as 100,000 lives, and certainly half that.

It's been criminally negligent.

I only hope the rest of the world learns our lessons, as we failed to from Italy first time around.

 

[nickyboy]

It's far too early to tell.

Let's talk again in a couple of months when there is some robust data rather than political spin.

I don't see why. Uninformed, uneducated conjecture and speculation is the cornerstone of this subforum. A little more won't hurt

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Ramp up in vaccine rates from a few dejected [edit: "selected!] countries.

Note log scale to allow trends in massively different rates understates the differences.

.

 

[srw]

I agree the govt vaccine programme to date has been excellent

Really?

Here's what my GP surgery had to say last weekend. They haven't updated this message.

"COVID-19 Vaccinations
We will be administering the first COVID-19 vaccinations (Pfizer BioNTech) to 975 of our most vulnerable patients from Weds 6th January, at [nextdoor town] Town Hall.

NHS England has advised that our initial priority is to vaccinate those who are aged 80 years old and older. However, the vaccination supply for next week is limited stock (975 doses) and this will not be enough to vaccinate all our patients aged over 80 in the first instance."

My rough calculation is that those 975 doses have to go around about 4,000 people over 80. We are in an affluent Tory-voting commuter town.

 

[srw]

I agree the govt vaccine programme to date has been excellent

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...-vaccine-london-surgery-yet-receive-any-doses

So good they can't even sort out the PR.

 

[srw]

I don't see why. Uninformed, uneducated conjecture and speculation is the cornerstone of this subforum. A little more won't hurt

See above for some maths.....

 

[vickster]

How many over 80s live in Bloomsbury? The link is behind a Guardian paywall

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Really?

Yes, really. See chart posted above.

Whether this continues, we'll see. But thus far, very good.

I don't think it's at all realistic to expect zero problems, and fear not, I'll be sure to pile on if they can't ramp it up.

 

[Pale Rider]

Europe, with the exception of Germany, not doing very well, according to this BBC story.

Russia, as ever, is something of a closed book, and all the figures need to be taken with bullshite vaccine, given how hard it is to gather accurate information.

But it still looks like the UK is close to the top of this particular tree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55575756

 

[srw]

How many over 80s live in Bloomsbury? The link is behind a Guardian paywall

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-vaccine-london-surgery-yet-receive-any-doses

Non-AMP link. The Guardian doesn't have a paywall.

Bloomsbury is the sort of place where people live for a long time. I'd expect there to be a lot of people who moved there when it was a bit Boho in the 60s and who have never moved away.

 

[Pale Rider]

Would the result of a covid test be skewed if you had the vaccine ?

Good question, the answer to which I believe is still, er, open to question.

The vaccine doesn't stop you catching the virus, it prevents severe symptoms, so one might think it wouldn't affect a test result.

Linked to this is another unknown: Does the vaccine prevent you infecting others?

Van Tam was asked about that a few days ago.

He said it was still being researched.

 

[srw]

See chart posted above.

The chart - with a log scale - shows that every other country on it have ramped up distribution very rapidly. We haven't. We've been more or less flatlining. And we're only publishing figures weekly, which makes me suspicious that they aren't all that good if you look at them daily.

 

[nickyboy]

See above for some maths.....

You're comparing actual performance and seeking to extrapolate these (so to some extent, conjecture)
I'm comparing actual performance against actual performance of other developed countries. Based on actual comparative performance the UK appears to be doing rather well viz our international cohort

Can't understand what's going on in France though.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

We've been more or less flatlining.

No, that comment just shows how easily misinterpreted a log plot is.

Here's the linear data (less Israel)

 

[vickster]

You're comparing actual performance and seeking to extrapolate these (so to some extent, conjecture)
I'm comparing actual performance against actual performance of other developed countries. Based on actual comparative performance the UK appears to be doing rather well viz our international cohort

Can't understand what's going on in France though.

Bureaucracy?
Europe's slow start: How many people have had the Covid vaccine? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55575756

Covid: The challenge in speeding up France's vaccination drive https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55547518