Over a certain age in England? Book your Covid vaccine

[Ming the Merciless]

For my booster I walked in, didn’t even sit down, directed to a booth, 15 mins and out. No huge queues but this is before they shortened the time from the second jab to 3 months. Hence you’ve now got people who had The 6 month wait mixing with all those who are only 3,4,5 months since second jab. Hence you now have 4 times as many people eligible as just a few weeks back.

 

[lazybloke]

For my booster I walked in, didn’t even sit down, directed to a booth, 15 mins and out. No huge queues but this is before they shortened the time from the second jab to 3 months. Hence you’ve now got people who had The 6 month wait mixing with all those who are only 3,4,5 months since second jab. Hence you now have 4 times as many people eligible as just a few weeks back.

562,800 jabs were administered today (source). It's a good number but I remember far more on the day of my first vaccination in March : 844,285 jabs (source) .

So unless I've had a brainfart ,my simplistic analysis is the current long queues are a problem of insufficient capacity - rather than unprecedented demand.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I had my booster on Thursday, pretty much straight in and out, apart from the 10 minutes of sitting after the jab.

My arm on the Friday was killing me, could hardly lift it.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

562,800 jabs were administered today (source). It's a good number but I remember far more on the day of my first vaccination in March : 844,285 jabs (source) .

So unless I've had a brainfart ,my simplistic analysis is the current long queues are a problem of insufficient capacity - rather than unprecedented demand.

The unprecedented queues are there due to four times the demand. Even 900,000 a day wouldn’t cover it right now.

 

[lazybloke]

The unprecedented queues are there due to four times the demand. Even 900,000 a day wouldn’t cover it right now.

Long queues in itself suggest insufficient capacity. Thankfully capacity has gone up massively in the few days since my post.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Long queues in itself suggest insufficient capacity. Thankfully capacity has gone up massively in the few days since my post.

or that people are t bothering to book and just behaving the same as panic buying and turning up at walk in centres en masse.

 

[Alex321]

or that people are t bothering to book and just behaving the same as panic buying and turning up at walk in centres en masse.

He's right though. That isn't an "or", it is the reason why there is insufficient capacity.

 

[cougie uk]

or that people are t bothering to book and just behaving the same as panic buying and turning up at walk in centres en masse.

It's nothing like panic buying though is it ?
The quicker we get vaccinated the less chance there is of us contracting it or getting ill with it.

So the less chance of passing it on or blocking hospital beds.

It's not the same as having a cupboard full of loo roll at all.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

He's right though. That isn't an "or", it is the reason why there is insufficient capacity.

But he doesn’t cover why there insufficient capacity which I covered above. If you suddenly release the demand flood gates of course there will be insufficient capacity.

 

[lazybloke]

Just to review figures; I commented on Tuesday there had been 562,800 jabs.
Today (Sunday), the beeb reported a total of 986,689 jabs.

That's an amazing 75% increase in the capacity of the vaccination programme in just 5 days.

Hopefully the queues that some reported earlier in the week will now be shorter. Plus the 15 minute recovery period is handled differently now.

 

[Time Waster]

Well I got a text to get my booster 5 months after my second jab. Az x2 plus Pfizer booster. I turned 49 after getting the invite text one day after I tried to book one. They were going on about 6 months being dropped for a week or two before they actually did it so I read the message and thought I'd be on 6 months and they'll change it. No I was wrong next day the invite.

I had a stinking cold so couldn't book any jab for two weeks. Over it last week so booked on Thursday for the Saturday. 5 minutes straight through without any capacity problems.

I do wonder how they choose the age. 50 vs 49? 55 vs 50? Really what is the difference? And why do they vaccinate whole families early when only one or two have medical conditions warranting special treatment?

Don't worry, I'm only bitter because I've come across the actuarial age cut off thing in NHS medicine a few times. It's bean counter stuff if you ask me. For example there's a simple and cheap test for bowel cancer what £5-10 a pop? But it's got a 55 or 60 year old cutoff. Yet how many times do you hear of some former top runner, footballer or actor losing their life in their early 40s to bowel cancer? It makes me wonder if the bean counters are doing their maths right.

Sorry, rant over. I dislike age based medical decisions.

 

[Alex321]

Well I got a text to get my booster 5 months after my second jab. Az x2 plus Pfizer booster. I turned 49 after getting the invite text one day after I tried to book one. They were going on about 6 months being dropped for a week or two before they actually did it so I read the message and thought I'd be on 6 months and they'll change it. No I was wrong next day the invite.

I had a stinking cold so couldn't book any jab for two weeks. Over it last week so booked on Thursday for the Saturday. 5 minutes straight through without any capacity problems.

I do wonder how they choose the age. 50 vs 49? 55 vs 50? Really what is the difference? And why do they vaccinate whole families early when only one or two have medical conditions warranting special treatment?

Don't worry, I'm only bitter because I've come across the actuarial age cut off thing in NHS medicine a few times. It's bean counter stuff if you ask me. For example there's a simple and cheap test for bowel cancer what £5-10 a pop? But it's got a 55 or 60 year old cutoff. Yet how many times do you hear of some former top runner, footballer or actor losing their life in their early 40s to bowel cancer? It makes me wonder if the bean counters are doing their maths right.

Sorry, rant over. I dislike age based medical decisions.

Initially, age was used as a basis because all the evidence was that the older you are, the higher your risk of serious illness or death. You may not like that, but it makes sense.

And any cut off point is going to be fairly arbitrary. I agree there isn't going to be much difference between 49 & 50, but unless they are doing everybody who wants one, the cutoff has to be somewhere.

As for whole families where one is vulnerable, they are trying to help the vulnerable one not come into contact with the disease by reducing the chance of somebody else in their family getting it.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

It's nothing like panic buying though is it ?
The quicker we get vaccinated the less chance there is of us contracting it or getting ill with it.

So the less chance of passing it on or blocking hospital beds.

It's not the same as having a cupboard full of loo roll at all.

I‘d say it is. If folk just booked their slots and waited for them to come round it’d be fine, no huge queues. But if everyone demands they are jabbed as soon as eligibility was brought forwards , of course there will be huge queues.

 

[cougie uk]

I‘d say it is. If folk just booked their slots and waited for them to come round it’d be fine, no huge queues. But if everyone demands they are jabbed as soon as eligibility was brought forwards , of course there will be huge queues.

This new variant is 70 times more transmissable according to Raaaaaab on the radio today.
Why would you wait the extra weeks when you can queue and get the vaccine now ?
What happens if you catch it in the meantime ?

 

[Time Waster]

Initially, age was used as a basis because all the evidence was that the older you are, the higher your risk of serious illness or death. You may not like that, but it makes sense.

And any cut off point is going to be fairly arbitrary. I agree there isn't going to be much difference between 49 & 50, but unless they are doing everybody who wants one, the cutoff has to be somewhere.

As for whole families where one is vulnerable, they are trying to help the vulnerable one not come into contact with the disease by reducing the chance of somebody else in their family getting it.

The issue is there's not much in it between 40 and 55 or a bit higher. In many medical situations it's a purely cost thing in that lowering the age 10 years means x times £5 when cost of treating the fraction of x who get the condition in those 10 years is less. It's a heartless calculation that misses out on the on costs not included such as costs to the families.

Covid is about reducing risk with a limited rate of supply of vaccine appointments but as with a lot of the covid handling they haven't put their data out there for scrutiny. No openness breeds views like mine that certain age ranges used may not be as valid as other criteria.

BTW the family that got completely vaccinated early had only one type 1 diabetic in the family. One high risk member but other families I know of had more family members with conditions like diabetes, asthma, autism, etc. I'm afraid inconsistent officialdom is another annoyance to me, perhaps I get too obsessed with consistency and coherence with things as important as pandemic handling.