Good news for a change.

[flamingpig0]

Well it is being supplied via Govt funding at cost. Looking at the news yesterday I fit into the 5th wave but not certain if I have a dangerous condition which would move me up to 3rd I think. I'll just wait and see.

Stay safe peeps.

You lucky bastard I am in the 6th wave

[sean66]

good news maybe 
but I read somewhere that you have no course of redress if you suffer side effects  :-
Also read Quantas has said that when a vaccine becomes readily available, you will have to prove you have been inoculated before being
allowed to board one of their flights 
how long before this becomes the norm, have to prove you had the jab to get into places (Cinema, Pubs, Clubs, Concerts)
Regards
Sean

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

I suspect that will become standard everywhere.

[Ithoriel]

good news maybe 
but I read somewhere that you have no course of redress if you suffer side effects  :-

I am glad the vaccines are proving successful and keen to get vaccinated when my turn comes but also glad not to be first in line. After all, the early bird may get the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese

[mmcv]

good news maybe 
but I read somewhere that you have no course of redress if you suffer side effects  :-
Also read Quantas has said that when a vaccine becomes readily available, you will have to prove you have been inoculated before being
allowed to board one of their flights 
how long before this becomes the norm, have to prove you had the jab to get into places (Cinema, Pubs, Clubs, Concerts)
Regards
Sean

At this point those under 50 don't even make the list unless high risk, so not sure how feasible that would be. And we don't know yet if it's a one time thing or seasonal like flu.

[Steve J]

The under 50's will be done from late Spring onwards, subject to the first tranche of people being vaccinated. So in our family our son will be done first, followed by myself, then maybe my wife in the first round if they include teachers, TA's etc, then our daughter bringing up the rear. Watch this space.

[steve_holmes_11]

You lucky bastard I am in the 6th wave

Said nobody on D-day.

[steve_holmes_11]

A word of caution:

The current ballpark estimate is 1 million injections per week.
I'm sure they will do their best to increase this number, but it is fairly big.

People need 2 injections (I don't know whether this is factored in, but I remember that 1 glove was counted as an item of PPE, so suspect we're still spinning for headlines).

If 2 injections in factored in it's about 15 months to get everybody in the UK.
If not then closer to 2 and a half years.


OK not bad, but we don't nkow how long this immunity lasts, so there's a scenario where thins becomes an annual thing like the Flu jab.
And that relegates us to "Painting the Forth Bridge*" territory.


* Better paints are available now, but the old story was that once they finished at one end, it was time to start again at the other.
    A neverending job, or a task of Syisyphus.

[Ray Rivers]

Personally I don't understand why everyone needs to be vaccinated. Seems a bit over wrought to me.

I totally discount the number of "infections" as this number is totally unreliable. Many, many millions have almost certainly already had the illness and the majority of them did not get a test. The numbers I rely on is hospitalizations and deaths.

The priority should be (and I understand it is) to protect the vulnerable. Once this objective is achieved and hospitalizations and deaths drop like a rock, then nature should take care of the rest.

[Orcs]

Correct.  The government has ordered enough vaccine to offer a jab to every person in the UK.  Any orders from private UK buyers will go to the back of the queue.  There will be no queue jumping by those who can afford to buy a vaccination. 

I would love to believe this John. But what is stopping UK buyers buying it from abroad (eg BUPA, Private Clinics, Big Business), where there is no free medical system? The pharmaceutical companies are not particularly known for their ethical behavior.  Do we really think they will turn down a fast buck?

The cost of a single vaccine dose in  India is possibly going to be as low as £4.50 to a more likely £27.  Given as the suggestion that it is likely to take in excess of a year to vaccinate the whole of the UK  and the fact that corruption in India and similar countries is rife. I would be very surprised if you cannot get an injection at a private clinic in the UK in the next few months well in advance of when you would be called unless you are on the 1st list to be vaccinated..  

[Ithoriel]

Personally I don't understand why everyone needs to be vaccinated. Seems a bit over wrought to me.

I totally discount the number of "infections" as this number is totally unreliable. Many, many millions have almost certainly already had the illness and the majority of them did not get a test. The numbers I rely on is hospitalizations and deaths.

The priority should be (and I understand it is) to protect the vulnerable. Once this objective is achieved and hospitalizations and deaths drop like a rock, then nature should take care of the rest.

Estimated world population 7.7 billion. Estimated Covid-19 infections worldwide 65 million. That's less than 1% of the global population who might have immunity.

"Everyone" won't wind up vaccinated for a myriad of reasons, good, bad and, frankly, verging on the insane.

We simply need the bulk of the human population of the planet to develop immunity. Vaccination is somewhat more humane than letting everybody get it and seeing who survives.

[Norm]

The number of infections is an early indicator of the infection rate within a certain area, say a county and allows a faster response to locally escalate or de-escalate measures (Tiers). Hospitalisation and deaths are a more precise measurement for making comparisons, but both come further down the line to infection counting and have the disadvantage of having 'lag' time.

I am guessing that the infrastructure will develop to better administer the vaccine at faster rates over time ..... there is an economic imperative that will focus attention on getting there. Throwing money at this part of the problem will probably be more cost effective than throwing it elsewhere.

[Orcs]

Personally I don't understand why everyone needs to be vaccinated. Seems a bit over wrought to me.

This disease  in a large number of cases is a particularly nasty disease to get, with potential long term life changing effects. I It has caused some 50,000+ people in this country to die in a very unpleasant way.  

Those not vaccinated will have the potential to infect those where the vaccine did not take, those who are at the end of the effective period the vaccination works for. (which we have no idea how long this is ) . Or others who were not given the vaccine.

Being young fit and healthy is no guarantee you won't die, or pass it on to someone who almost certainly will.

Getting everybody vaccinated is the only way to try and get rid of the disease or at least ensure that most people survive it .

The cost of vaccinating everybody (around £3.5 Billion) is about 10% of what the furlough scheme cost. Plus the impact on jobs, industry etc.

[Raider4]

I saw one of the medical experts saying he'd get his elderly mother vaccinated in flash, which gave me flashbacks to seeing a chinless wonder force-feeding his daughter a beef burger at the height of the mad cow disease scare.

Must admit, I have completely lost any faith that any of our political masters even know what the truth is, let alone whether they are telling it or not.

[Ray Rivers]

We must remember that there is a human rights convention which states (more or less) that to perform any medical procedure on a person, you must have that person's consent.

Here in Spain, in a recent poll, 55% of the folks responding said they want to wait until they know what the secondary effects of the vaccine are. Most of the folks I talk to believe that the number of infections is at least 10 times higher than reported.

Meanwhile, there are indications that areas which suffered heavily at the beginning of the pandemia (London for example) have seen marked deceases in the number of deaths; which some are seeing as an indication of herd immunity.

As an ex-Naval Aviator, I have learned that when everyone is panicking around you, that is the time to maintain calm. I believe that somewhere around March the worst will have past... just in time to save our economies.

Will I get the vaccine? Yep. Does everyone need it? Nope.

[Heedless Horseman]

Strange that we don't hear very much about China? Putting the 'possible' 'conspiracy theories' and 'blame' to one side... THEY have had much more time to assess and develop responses... yet the media concentrate on 'our' troubles and treatments..'warned off', maybe?   

[Ithoriel]

We need at least 70% of the worlds population to have immunity through infection or vaccination. Even if infection rates were 10 times higher (unlikely) it still only takes us to 8% of the planet''s population. Only four or five billion or so to go.

I don't see life returning to something like normal until 2022 or beyond. I'd be delighted to be proved wrong.

The Chinese experience is illuminating but not something we could emulate. A Chinese citizen I know was rash enough to try to sneak out to the shops in contravention of local restrictions. They were intercepted by the police, dragged back home and denounced to their neighbours as a threat to them all. Effective as an anti-virus measure but it requires a level of surveillance and conformity the UK population would not want to emulate, I think.

[FierceKitty]

I lived in China for two months. It was the longest twenty years of my life. And I grew up in a police state!

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Your masjor problem there Alexander was not being Chinese, they are even more arrogent than the Boers, or English

[FierceKitty]

Well, I'm married to one (by origins, not passport; three generations away); the stock can be friendly. It was the utter grey mediocrity of life in modern China I hated.