Covid-19 vaccines and vaccinations

https://www.hsj.co.uk/primary-care/...ed-for-vaccination-nhs-warned/7029535.article

 

https://www.homecare.co.uk/news/art...navirus-vaccine-due-to-vaccination-blind-spot

 

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!)

 

Approximately, which part is that?

 

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.

 

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).

 

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.

 

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

As the same people will still be homebound then.

 

I would email my M.P. if I were you.

 

Applies to England only:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavi...e-vaccination-programme-vaccinating-cohort-6/

 

Relevant for autistic people or those with a learning difficulty, discusses reasonable adjustments that should be offered:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/covid-19-vaccination-training/

 

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.

 

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.

 

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!

 

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

good luck

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1364791367226953729

 

I've just seen this link on a round-robin email from my MP, about vaccinations for housebound people. I wonder whether some other CCGs might be doing something similar? Might be worth a visit to the relevant website, for those PwME who can't get out.

https://nottsccg.nhs.uk/covid-19/vaccination-programme-for-housebound-residents/

 

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!

 

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?

 

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.