Covid-19 vaccines and vaccinations

issues here are distances to travel to get to hubs to be vaccinated - especially for more vulnerable patient groups . Previously this group was part of the GP localised delivery.
We had many local community cntred vaccination points for initial 2 doses - much reduced for boosters.

OH has been advised by practice nurse that GPs are being roped back in to try and address this.

 

Same here—said on the news that the website (which refused me last week) was being changed from today, and I've been able to book for 21st.

Only came up with two venues with wheelchair access and disabled parking that are close by, but as one of them's five minutes away, all good.

Sometimes the info they have on access is a bit duff. Our closest pharmacy isn't listed* as having wheelchair access, but I suspect what it means is they don't meet a particular access standard. There are no steps, there's enough room in the smallish shop to turn around, and there's doorbell outside for anyone who needs the staff to open the door for them, but I suspect I might struggle to get into their private booth if I wanted to speak to the pharmacist in confidence. I never do, so it's fine.


*ETA: I don't mean on this particular website, as they're not a vaccination centre, I just mean generally when you try to check access before visiting somewhere for the first time. It seems to happen quite a lot.

 

What I cant understand, is whether you can book your jab until after 5 mnths have passed, or if you cant have it until 5mnths has passed.

I not eligible until next monday (the 5mnth mark) so is the reason the national nhs online booking system wont give me access because i cant book it until after I eligible next monday? .... - i wanted to book it for nxt tuesday.

Btw in my small town in the midlands, 3 wks ago Boots pharmacy were doing walk in boosters for those eligible- if that helps anyone. they said they expected to still be doing them in nov/decmber, so i might try there

 

This is what the site says today:

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

Book or manage a booster dose of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine

Who can use this service

You can use this service to book an appointment for a booster dose if it's been 152 days (five months) since your 2nd dose and you're in one of these groups:

• aged 50 and over
• aged 16 and over with a health condition that puts you at high risk from COVID-19

You'll be offered appointment dates from 182 days (6 months) after the date of your 2nd dose.

You can also use this service if you're a frontline health and social care worker. You'll be able to book an appointment for a booster dose if it's been at least 182 days (6 months) since your 2nd dose of the vaccine.

---------------------------------------------------------

When I was checking last Monday to see if we were eligible to book yet, I'm pretty certain it had said 190 days from date of 2nd dose. Then when I checked again last Wednesday, it said I could book now, although the earliest available appointments started from Wednesday, 24 November. So we each booked separately and were able to secure appointments that are 10 minutes apart.

On Twitter today some people have reported the site has had a queue system in place (there was no queuing last Wednesday) and when they did get onto the site, they were being told they weren't eligible even though they had received notification to say they were eligible - hopefully these glitches, today, will be sorted out by tomorrow. I don't like the the way the site works if you need to cancel and rebook. 6 months ago, you couldn't see what slots were still available unless you cancelled first. (Not sure whether that's the same now.) It gives you no opportunity to have a look at current availability before making a decision to cancel.

 

My appointment is under 6 months from my second jab - not by much, a couple of days, but it won't be 6 months.

There did not appear to be any block on my appointment date, it's just the 16th was the first available appointment.

There was a queuing system to get to the form.

 

So they are still not allowing you to actually HAVE your booster until 6mnths after your 2nd dose, they are just letting people BOOK it after 5mnths. So nothing has changed except access to booking an appointment? How ridiculously confusing. What a shower.

I agree @Dx Revision Watch the site/booking system is pretty useless to say it's a national site. About the same standard as test & trace has been. When i was having trouble booking my second dose back in June, a friend of mine said he himself could have built a better functioning site than that, he was on furlough said hed have done it for free. There is no excuse for poor gov't tech, it's just a bunch of jobsworths, Esther Rantzen would have had a field day. ***

I will try the walk in after 5mnths.

(*** for anyone under 50, this is a ref to a tv prog popular in the 1980s hosted by Rantzen called That's Life, where such stupidities were highlighted)

 

It looks as though they have changed today's subject:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011cq7

It seems to be now about working in care homes.

 

Today, on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1458351221614411779

 

Thanks for that @Dx Revision Watch good to have that clarification.

 

I'm glad my primary care practice wasn't administering a flu jab and a C-19 Pfizer booster at the same time, as the day after my flu jab, I felt pretty rough all day, although paracetamol did help. For adults over 65:

"adults aged 65 and over – the most common [flu vaccine] contains an extra ingredient to help your immune system make a stronger response to the vaccine"

My husband, who is 75, only experienced a slightly sore arm after his flu jab, and he had minimal side effects after both doses of AZ. We have our C-19 booster two weeks today and are expecting to get Pfizer or Moderna.

 

good luck with it Suzy hope it goes well for you both

 

You're welcome JemPD.

I've just counted up and our booked date of 24 November will be 209 days since the date of our second AZ vaccinations.

The additional delay may be due to several factors: anticipated local deliveries of Pfizer; the days on which our practice has access to the venue, which was a hub for a number of specified local GP practices but has now been opened up to patients from any local practices who would like to get a booster and is also currently being used at weekends for drive through flu vaccinations; and earlier booking dates may have already been snapped up if they were released on the day before I attempted book two sequential appointments. So taking 28 days as a month, it will be nearly 7.5 months until we get the booster.

 

Er...what is it?!

 

Fluad, the vaccine recommended for people aged 65 and over, contains a small amount of an adjuvant called MF59. Adjuvants are substances which help to strengthen and lengthen the immune response to the vaccine. The main ingredient in MF59 is squalene oil, a naturally-occurring oil found in humans, plants and animals. 13 Oct 2021

Inactivated Flu Vaccine
https://vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk › inactivated-flu-vaccine


See also: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/adjuvant.htm

for considerably more information on MF59 adjuvant.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squalene

It is also used in cosmetics.

 

You can apply in NZ for a vaccine exemption for the Pfizer vaccine mandate for 6 months, it particularly mentions ME/CFS. https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work...emptions-and-exceptions-mandatory-vaccination. There are strict criteria but they advise not to have the second dose if in relapse. They may be doing a trial of fractionated doses on pwME, they have asked for expressions of interest within our community via ANZMES.

 

Good to hear that someone takes ME seriously. It had never occurred to me that fractionated doses might be an idea.

 

I don't understand the point of this in relation to pwME.

As far as I can make out from the document there's going to be a temporary medical exemption for the second dose if you've had a major bad reaction to the first, the idea being to give you time to recover from that bad reaction.

But this temporary exemption appears to only be aimed at people working in a job covered by the vaccine mandate. But most people with ME don't work in the first place and those who do and who had a major worsening from their first vaccine are unlikely to be able to work until they've recovered from that relapse. At which point they're supposed to have their second vaccine (possibly a different type from their first). So who is this supposed to apply to? What am I missing?

The relevant sections for a pwME seem to be: