Covid-19 vaccines and vaccinations

That's different to what I read this morning. I'll have to try and find the article that I read. That seems a bit excessive to me. I don't see how this can be healthy pumping that many vaccines into a person in such a short period of time.

 

That concerns me too.

 

Risk factors and disease profile of post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK users of the COVID Symptom Study app: a prospective, community-based, nested, case-control study

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/...il&utm_term=0_8cab1d7961-9589a60c89-130622217

 

Note that despite all the headlines, this study didn't measure LongCovid as they only analysed data for up to 28 days.

 

Groups most at risk after vaccination:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/me...vaccination/ar-AAOyWQq?ocid=ASUDHP&li=BBoPWjQ

 

It seems that, after full vaccination, I may be 26 times more likely to die from covid (and/or 34 times more likely to be hospitalised) than a member of the general population.

Which is nice.

I used the 'tool' referenced in the article - QCovid

https://qcovid.org/Calculation

Personally I think this is rubbish;

The chances of my dying are 50%, in any particular second (two options, alive or dead, divide 100% by 2 and...)

The chances of my being hospitalised are similar.

 

It is certainly overly simplistic, giving high statistical weight to nonspecific factors, rather than specific factors.

 

This sounds interesting:

Clot risk linked to AstraZeneca vaccine could depend on which blood group you are
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/me...oup-you-are/ar-AAPavMo?ocid=ASUDHP&li=BBoPWjQ

 

I'm not sure how reliable the data would be considering the significant % of vaccinated people who had a prior infection without them realizing it, compounded with the vaccines making some pwLC and pwME worse. How much of that effect overlaps is impossible to tell because we have no way to know the true rates of infection, and whether they preceded vaccination. It could be that all the individual factors matter but we have no way of assessing how much, everything is mixed in together.

 

Moved post
UK Vaccine eligibility change?

The green book has been updated and it lists more conditions within the document under "neurological conditions" but still does not list ME. It says

"The full specification for those diagnoses, and associated clinical codes, eligible for COVID19 vaccination has been developed and is available on the PRIMIS website https://www. nottingham.ac.uk/primis/covid-19/covid-19.aspx. Access to the link is available to NHS professionals and requires online registration."

I can't get access to PRIMIS. Does anybody have access, and isn't this something that should be public?

 

The time requirement for a booster, in the UK, has dropped down to 5 months (for booking at least).

I was not due for consideration (i.e. allowed to book) until the 25th of November but have just been 'approved' and booked an appointment for the 16th of November.

The 'good' bit is the place is under 30m from where I would get off the bus in the bus station.

Of course their list of access adaptations/requirements is useless for me, with no reference to my being unable to stand for long, so I had to select no access limitations, as none of theirs were applicable and it wouldn't let me proceed unless I selected 'none'.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coron...ter-dose-of-the-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine/

(My sisters been bugging me to get one done ASAP, as regulations, and her health, allowing she is planning on driving down to pick me up to stay up there, in an airbnb, over Christmas - and then driving me back here afterwards).

 

Glad you've been able to book a booster, Wonko. I was reading this morning there are concerns that take up has been lower than expected: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59191506

We weren't able to book boosters until Wednesday, last week. The earliest appointments available at the venue our GP practice and sister practices are using (which is only a 15 minute drive away) were from 24 November, so we've booked for that day.

We also had to tick "none" for access requirements as otherwise the NHS booking site screens out our venue and we would have been offered venues much further away. But in fact, the venue has ramps at the front access and steps at the exit, and last time we were there, the nursing staff and marshals notice I use a cane, and asked me if I could manage the steps for the exit, and said they would open a fire door exit for me to avoid doing steps, although I can do steps. Also along the queuing corridors (and it's never a long queue, anyway) and in the reception area there are chairs placed every couple of metres if you need to perch while you are queuing. There were loos on the way in, too. This venue is usually a ferry terminal passenger lounge, so I didn't notice, but I would think there is a disabled access loo, as well.

So I don't understand why it wasn't listed as being accessible. You are permitted to drop someone off at the entrance before you park the car which we did for me, because my arthritic hip means I can't walk any distance now without pain, and I think there were a few wheelchairs parked outside the entrance you could borrow. But there may have been other accessibility requirements in the list which I've overlooked which this venue does not have.

Yesterday after lunch, we had flu jabs at the same venue but a drive through system using lorry parking areas and the covered area normally used for border control - so no getting out of the car required, as the GP jabbed us through the car windows. Never bothered with flu jabs before but thought we ought to have them this year, especially given my husband's history of stroke and TIAs, and given that all three of us caught the "cold from hell" in September which lasted 2.5 weeks for us, and for my ME son, 3 weeks, and was the worst cold any of us has ever experienced. My husband, who is 6 years older than me, feels fine, today. But I had a really achy arm last night in the muscle where I was jabbed. Got up feeling fine and arm much less sore, but by 10.30am I was cold and shivery with that "coming down with flu and just want to crawl back into bed" feeling and I am excused a shopping collection this afternoon. Paracetamol has helped and I hope by tomorrow it will have passed. (Don't have ME, myself.)

One of the volunteers assisting with admin was the lovely lady who used to live next door to us - so it was nice to see her.

 

The whole 'take up' line strikes me as duplicitous.

People who've had the previous 2 shots are unlikely to be 'refusers'.

The reason, IMO, take up is low is simply down to the timing restrictions that have been in place, effectively blocking a lot of people from even attempting to book.

I wanted to get it as soon as possible simply to allow time for any side effects to reduce before Christmas.

My sister, partner, and brood (as far as I know) currently have covid, the kids have had it multiple times (according to the tests) and this as AFAIK her 3rd bout. Obviously it may not in fact her 3rd bout, it could be PVFS, which is more of a concern, as far as I am concerned anyway - I am unaware of her recent test status.

She is currently off work until after Christmas, so obviously I am concerned about the exertion she proposes to undertake in picking me up and dropping me back off (roughly 300 miles drive each way, fortunately not both on the same day), especially when combined with the 'restful' and 'relaxed' time an average family Christmas entails.

 

I'd been checking the NHS booking site every couple of days for eligibility; we were told we were eligible last Wednesday, before we'd received the blue envelope NHS booking invitations (mine didn't arrive until this morning) so late mailed out letters may also be putting off some from checking for eligibility via the NHS site. As it's likely to be Pfizer we will be given this time, supplies may vary from area to area, too.

 

I got an NHS envelope about a month ago, that is basically blue - inside was a 'request' to get a flu jab.

I do not normally get a flu jab, but would consider it this year if it was at the same time as the booster, but despite media coverage saying they would be, it is not - separate appointment, different place (GP surgery) which is 2 buses each way, and takes half a day given the bus schedules. Assuming they run as they are supposed to which based on my last 2 trips out they are not.

Too much standing around waiting for buses, in the cold and wind, and possibly rain, for something I would not seek out - so not going to happen, unless they surprise me and offer it with my booster - which seems 'unlikely'.

Every time I have gone to the surgery at this time of year I have ended up 'ill' for weeks, for the last several years (since they moved out of town into one of the villages).

 

I'm planning to post a separate thread for this as well, but if anyone else is hesitant about getting COVID jabs, the radio programme You and Yours is asking people to contact them for tomorrow's programme, which may be interesting:

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours - Contact You & Yours

 

According to health Canada guidelines:

Residents of long-term care homes, retirement homes or seniors in other congregate living settings, adults 70 years of age and older, and all eligible immunocompromised individuals are recommended to receive the full dose (100 mcg) if being offered Moderna for a third or booster dose.

For all other individuals less than 70 years of age, if offering Moderna as a booster dose, a half dose (50 mcg) is recommended.

If offering Pfizer-BioNTech for a third or booster dose, the full dose (30 mcg) is recommended.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society...-booster-system-is-the-real-reason-for-delays

One point to pull out from this is that the NHS app is apparently not recording third vaccines.
I don't have the app but have noticed that only vs1 and 2 are recorded on my surgery computer records even though I had v3 over 4 weeks ago now.

I wonder why v3 is not being recorded routinely. It could cause a problem in the delivery of future possible v4,5,6 etc if annual boosters are required.

 

Poor specification/implementation i would imagine.

A single nibble (half a byte) would record up to 15 jabs with the only alterations needed to do so would be additional text for a drop down selector - a little extra storage for storing dates/location//batch/who gave info for each jab would be nice but not essential, unless a problem occurs, so knowing the government, and the NHS, probably not implemented.

A small/trivial code update could manage it, and be compatible with existing covid vaccination records, provided they aren't using some wacky system ATM.

So...completely undoable, as they will be using a wacky, unsensible, system, possibly made up by a group of drunk people who know how to phone up to get someone to turn their PC on, on wet napkins.

ETA - it appears part of my brain is back, functioning poorly, but back.