[Aileen]

I do wish they'd make up their minds about this because it isn't exactly confidence inspiring.

"Doctors call for shorter gap between Pfizer Covid vaccine doses in UK"

"British Medical Council warns current 12-week wait could reduce effectiveness of the jab"

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/23/doctors-call-shorter-gap-pfizer-covid-vaccine-doses-uk

[Aileen]

^  I'm sure it would be better to have a 3 week gap between vaccinations.

That was what the NHS originally wanted but then the government, and Whitty, panicked in late December when the number of cases in England started to rise significantly and decided that the important thing was to give one dose of the vaccine to as many people as possible.  Not surprisingly the BMA are not at all happy about the 12 week gap which is why they want it reduced to 6 weeks and have written to Whitty to say so - that is if you believe the 'leaked' letter the BBC got its hands on.  Meanwhile WHO are recommending a 4 week gap,

It doesn't help either that "According to the government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, unpublished data suggests the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is still effective when the doses are administered 12 weeks apart. However, Pfizer said it had only tested the vaccine’s efficacy when the two doses were given up to 21 days apart."

[Murray Magic]

Can I just point out a couple of things here which are not from government papers etc but from the fact that I work in an area that is living eating n sleeping this roll out - the logistics of the Pfizer vaccine need to be worked out to the exact point of knowing where you are transporting it - the timings of getting there and the timings of how long it will last in that one area - therefore it can only be used in one area I.e not able to be used for home visiting etc.   Scotland to date has vaccinated 95% of all Care Home Residents n staff.   So to me this is not a race and a “we are doing better than you” etc but it’s about preserving lives.   There is a lot of preparation goes into administering the vaccine - phoning ahead checking wellness etc.  We are lucky if we have done less than 12 hour days every day (even tho overtime is not a thing in the NHS) but the nurses we work for report that people are so pleased to be getting this vaccine and seeing a potential end in sight that it is all very much worth it.   
All this “political point scoring” is crazy - Countries will do things differently as NHS Boards within that country will do things differently - it’s all for the same outcome and it is happening out there folks. 

[boogers]

Can I just point out a couple of things here which are not from government papers etc but from the fact that I work in an area that is living eating n sleeping this roll out - the logistics of the Pfizer vaccine need to be worked out to the exact point of knowing where you are transporting it - the timings of getting there and the timings of how long it will last in that one area - therefore it can only be used in one area I.e not able to be used for home visiting etc.

We've been talking about this since the summer. Adenovirus vaccines like the AstraZeneca and J&J efforts are much easier to transport and administer than the mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer.

All UK nations have the same issues with deploying the Pfizer vaccine. Which is fine, because the majority of doses now being deployed are from AstraZeneca.

Scotland to date has vaccinated 95% of all Care Home Residents n staff.   So to me this is not a race and a “we are doing better than you” etc but it’s about preserving lives.

In England we're up to 80% of residents, despite having double the number of residents per capita compared to Scotland. Simultaneously, we've managed to vaccinate almost double the number of all over 80's per capita.

And it most definitely is a race. The quicker the vulnerable are vaccinated, the more lives are saved.

Yesterday in England 441,000 doses were administered. Scotland only managed 23,566. That's under half the amount per capita.

All this “political point scoring” is crazy - Countries will do things differently as NHS Boards within that country will do things differently - it’s all for the same outcome and it is happening out there folks.  

It's not about "point scoring", it's about holding governments to account. The longer it takes to roll out the vaccine, the more people die.

There may well be a good explanation for why Scotland has fallen behind every other UK nation, but "we're focusing on care homes" doesn't seem to be it.

[tamila]

I had the AstraZeneca vac on Friday. I was very impressed with the organisation and was through in just 20 minutes. We have started on the 75 + group here in Woking. I had a slight headache on Saturday morning that was the only side effect. I don't even have a sore arm. The volunteers were marvellous.

[boogers]

Tamila, I'm curious - did they book you in for the second dose already?

[boogers]

Unfortunately that was only to be expected from boogers.  However I tend to believe things which come straight from those who are directly involved in situations such as these over those who only go by what they find in statistics and graphs or the so-called 'reliable' media, or even worse anything that comes from the UK government!

Taking the anecdotes from a single - potentially highly biased - individual is not a good way to get a true handle on what's going on.

And on the subject of the latter Hancock the Hopeless was spreading misleading information on Sky yesterday by saying that "The vaccine rollout here is going so well. Over five million people have been vaccinated.  As of this morning, three quarters of all over-80s in the UK have been vaccinated, which is absolutely brilliant progress."  Unfortunately for him the truth is that while all these people have indeed been vaccinated, it's only their first dose so therefore they aren't going to be fully vaccinated until they’ve received their second dose, whenever that might be.  While I could be accused of indulging in semantics, I do strongly believe that in the current climate the onus is on the government to tell the public exactly what the situation with the vaccine is.

A single dose of both the Pfizer and Astrazeneca vaccine infers considerable protection from infection, and even greater protection from serious disease. We know this because the trials said so, and we're also seeing the same reflected in the case data from Israel, where they've managed to vaccinate even more people than we have.

Hancock is absolutely correct here: the rollout in the UK (even in Scotland, which is lagging behind every other UK nation) is way ahead of every other EU country.

Just fess up Aileen: you're getting nervous about your highly illogical "I won't take the vaccine" stance