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Covid-19 vaccines and vaccinations

Discussion in 'Epidemics (including Covid-19, not Long Covid)' started by hinterland, Dec 3, 2020.

  1. Simbindi

    Simbindi Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    https://www.hsj.co.uk/primary-care/...ed-for-vaccination-nhs-warned/7029535.article
     
    Kitty, JaneL, lunarainbows and 3 others like this.
  2. Simbindi

    Simbindi Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  3. Kitty

    Kitty Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Moved post

    It appears that, in my part of the UK at least, you can now describe yourself as clinically vulnerable and book a vaccination appointment.

    Someone I know did this, after being advised by their local authority not to wait for an invitation. Like me, they have ME plus another chronic illness, but are neither on the shielding list nor over 65. They were half-expecting to be turned away when they got to their appointment, but not at all.

    I've checked the app over several days, and there seem to be quite a few appointments at each site still available even by late afternoon, so they don't appear to be struggling to provide for people who ought to be ahead of me in the queue. Someone who's volunteering at one of them told me they have more vaccine available than arms to put it in, so providing the situation is the same next week, I'll try and book myself in. (My MoT is being sorted this week – wheelie accessible vans are wonderful until the ruddy exhaust develops a leak, at which point you have to find a garage where they make the pipes up to fit non-standard vehicles!)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 26, 2021
    Binkie4, JaneL, Michelle and 7 others like this.
  4. Andy

    Andy Committee Member

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    Approximately, which part is that?
     
    Michelle, MEMarge and Kitty like this.
  5. Kitty

    Kitty Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Nottinghamshire. The old system of smallish CCGs seems to have changed now, and despite containing several different local authorities, the whole county is under the same one and is using the same app for all the centres.
     
    merylg, Trish, Andy and 1 other person like this.
  6. lunarainbows

    lunarainbows Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    My mums had to keep calling the district nurse, and now we find out that the GP sent my referral to the wrong district nurse service so they don’t cover my catchment area so won’t come out. :/

    they also told us that the GPs themselves can come out and do vaccines. Why haven’t they done it? Now my mum needs to try to call and get another referral put in and wait some time again. Also Dr IQ is not allowing me to put in online consultations either as the GP practice is stopping them at 1 or 2pm every day (they used to be 24hrs a day, even on weekends).
     
  7. lunarainbows

    lunarainbows Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    So my mum called them again and my mum said what are you doing about clinically extremely vulnerable people who are housebound? They’re supposed to have been vaccinated by now. And the staff said “vaccines don’t travel, you have to come to us”! What is the meaning of this? Then she told my mum that they don’t have a system for clinically extremely vulnerable homebound people, you either come into clinic or if you can’t come in, you have to wait... unbelievable.
     
    Kitty, Binkie4, JaneL and 7 others like this.
  8. Wonko

    Wonko Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    So they are expecting to have a system in, what....a few weeks months, decades?

    As the same people will still be homebound then.
     
    Kitty, JaneL, Yessica and 2 others like this.
  9. Simbindi

    Simbindi Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I would email my M.P. if I were you.
     
    Kitty, NelliePledge, Amw66 and 5 others like this.
  10. Simbindi

    Simbindi Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  11. Simbindi

    Simbindi Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Kitty, JaneL, Yessica and 4 others like this.
  12. Wits_End

    Wits_End Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    That's all these clinically extremely vulnerable people who have been instructed to stay at home / self-isolate until the end of March, I presume. (We're still waiting, too). And GPs *do* do home visits to administer vaccines: I was talking to one who had been only last weekend. But it may be it doesn't work if the surgery only has the Pfizer vaccine because of the storage conditions required (it does seem to be a bit hit-and-miss which vaccine is delivered on any one day). And/or that they need to put together a sufficiently large visiting list so that all the vaccine can be used in one go, rather than doing a few people on one day and a few more on another. I think even the AstraZeneca one needs to be used up within 6 hours, IIRC.
     
    Kitty, JaneL, Binkie4 and 3 others like this.
  13. arewenearlythereyet

    arewenearlythereyet Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I rang up earlier this week in my area (Cambridgeshire) since a work colleague had rang on Monday and been booked for a jab on Friday despite not having received a letter or anything (she has a respiratory condition not ME). When I rang the same GP surgery on Wednesday the surgery advised that they were waiting for a new batch and all slots were booked. They couldn’t book me until the next batch of vaccine arrived (how the system worked) but suggested I ring on Monday when the vaccination centre would have more arrive and be able to release more slots to give to my GP surgery. There was no challenge about me actually having it...it was just a logistical restriction.
     
  14. Kitty

    Kitty Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Yes, much the same here. I guess the difference is that I'm not using the local surgery, but one of those centres that has been set up to operate seven days a week on a semi-industrial scale. This one is at former TV studios that I know quite well.

    I wanted to avoid my GP surgery because it only has two disabled parking spaces. I can't even get out of my van in the standard-sized ones, so I'd have had to turn up really early to queue for a space – potentially blocking it from use by another disabled badge holder, who might be ahead of me in the appointment schedule.

    The centre I'm visiting has a big car park, is on an industrial estate with easily accessible roads, and unlike the surgery, is also large, high-roofed, and airy. I've booked my appointment for Sunday, so fingers crossed!
     
  15. arewenearlythereyet

    arewenearlythereyet Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Yes I will get vaccinated at a vaccination centre somewhere else I believe ... the gp will just be my booking agent :)

    good luck
     
  16. Snow Leopard

    Snow Leopard Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  17. Kitty

    Kitty Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Simbindi, Binkie4 and Invisible Woman like this.
  18. Snow Leopard

    Snow Leopard Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I'd just like to comment on the frequent claims in the media that all of the vaccines "prevent" severe illness and death. Unfortunately, this is not true. The clinical trials did not have sufficient sample size for any conclusions on this. However real-world data shows that while the risk is significantly reduced, vulnerable people who have been vaccinated are still dying.

    Data from Israel
    https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2101765

    Data from Scotland:


    Only prevention of transmission will stop people from dying!
     
    Sarah94, Michelle, JemPD and 18 others like this.
  19. FMMM1

    FMMM1 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Seems to provide evidence for going with a single dose --- reduction in hospitalisations 95%? I wonder if this will encourage the the UK Westminster Government to further delay second doses i.e. to get more people a first dose.

    Still, only sure approach to avoid severe illness/death is not getting the virus!

    If you were responsible for the decision @Snow Leopard would this data suggest the optimal time for the second dose is e.g. 28 days -- or is it still not clear?
     
    Sarah94 and Michelle like this.
  20. Snow Leopard

    Snow Leopard Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    The 94% figure is nonsense, lacks sufficient sample size to have any confidence for generalisation.
    Have a look at the data in the appendix. The efficacy in the first few weeks of both vaccines (against hospitalisation) is in the 50-75% range)
    But there is a lack of data for the AZ vaccine in general.

    There is a lack of long-term data, but nothing in the data suggests that later than 21-28 days is superior for the Pfizer vaccine.
     
    alktipping, Sarah94, Mithriel and 2 others like this.

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