Covid-19 vaccines and vaccinations

I've just booked in my Covid booster, but in the UK we don't usually know which vaccine we're getting till we turn up to the appointment.

Even the pharmacist doesn't know until the supply arrives, they dispense whichever gets delivered to them. I don't think it's usual for them to have more than one type in stock at any one time, so if you're worried about it the only real option is to ask a day or so ahead, and cancel the appointment if necessary.

I've only had a mild reaction to one of them, and as I've had the same brand twice since with no ill-effects, it probably doesn't make much difference.
 
@Kitty is Novavax approved in the U.K?

I'm going over to the walk-in clinic like I did last December. No appointment. It's only a 5 min walk from my place. I'll take whatever they give me.
 
Mij said:
@Kitty is Novavax approved in the U.K?
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Just looked it up, and yes. It's being sold to pharmacies for paid-for vaccinations.

Vaccination is free to anyone qualifying for the NHS booster programme, so that's what I'll be doing—though if I didn't qualify, I'd at the very least be looking up how much the private service costs. I spend time in a group twice a week where masking isn't feasible, so I prefer to have 'flu and Covid jabs.
 
I’m booked in for my routine flu jab in a week at my GP surgery special Saturday opening just for jabs. Unlike last year they have now actually told people in advance that Covid jab will also be available. I had both together last year no problems so will go with one in each arm again.
 
NelliePledge said:
I’m booked in for my routine flu jab in a week at my GP surgery special Saturday opening just for jabs. Unlike last year they have now actually told people in advance that Covid jab will also be available. I had both together last year no problems so will go with one in each arm again.
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(In the UK). I had already booked in with my GP for the flue jab, but had thought I wasn’t eligible for the Covid jab. However I got an email today that said anyone over 65 is now eligible for it (I am 65). Have booked into a vaccination centre for two time, but don’t know which type it will be.
 
NelliePledge said:
Unlike last year they have now actually told people in advance that Covid jab will also be available.
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I've only had notice from the GP surgery about 'flu. That's booked in for next week, but if they have Covid jabs in stock by the time I go, I'll probably have them both.

I've booked the 'flu jab to avoid a couple of social things, as I now get the sort with the special adjuvant for wrinkly old bats. It made me feel a bit off for a couple of days last year—I'd never had a reaction to it before.
 
I get to have my booster jab earlier or at all on medical grounds weakened but not the immunocompromised category.

So I get a letter telling me that I ‘may be eligible’ but upon trying to book it becomes clear that what that means is I can book an appointment because maybe I qualify for a vaccine. But they don’t actually decide whether or not I do until I am in the appointment at the chemist.

I’ve never actually been stopped at this point but I do get grilled on whether I really need one sometimes.

I don’t react well to the vaccines about two weeks feeling like I have flu maybe a couple of months feeling generally bad. But I often can’t have a vaccine until way late because I can’t leave the house for one. Always leaving me tempted to just not have one.

But I have asthma and I have had severe breathlessness each time I’ve had suspected Covid last time I thought I might have to call an ambulance. The first time it’s been that bad since my first infection pre vaccinations so I think I’ll have to have one. I really don’t wanna go like that.

I was thinking of trying to get a Novavax one privately in hopes of fewer side effects or faster recovery.

But I don’t know how recently updated the current batches will be compared with say Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. I to find out but got too confused and gave up.

If anyone knows give me a shout?!
 
@Ash

This is so wrong for a person who disabled/ill to have to go out for a vaccine only to be told that you're not eligible when you get there :mad:

Ash said:
But I often can’t have a vaccine until way late because I can’t leave the house for one. Always leaving me tempted to just not have one.
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Exactly. I hope you can figure out a way to get the Novavax.

When they offered home visits at the start of the pandemic for a couple of years here, this is exactly what the visiting nurses shared with me, that a lot of pwdisabiliities don't get vaccinated for that reason.
 
Mij said:
@Ash

This is so wrong for a person who disabled/ill to have to go out for a vaccine only to be told that you're not eligible when you get there :mad:


Exactly. I hope you can figure out a way to get the Novavax.

When they offered home visits at the start of the pandemic for a couple of years here, this is exactly what the visiting nurses shared with me, that a lot of pwdisabiliities don't get vaccinated for that reason.
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Thanks for the support @Mij
Definitely our government makes it unnecessarily difficult to get vaccines for many people who need them, which is everyone under current circumstances. I feel for people completely excluded from access. I fear for those who can’t have them for medical reasons or respond to one at all due to their condition. It’s a dangerous time.
 
Ash said:
I get to have my booster jab earlier or at all on medical grounds weakened but not the immunocompromised category.

I was thinking of trying to get a Novavax one privately in hopes of fewer side effects or faster recovery.

But I don’t know how recently updated the current batches will be compared with say Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
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I don't know, but I'd assume that once a vaccine has been updated and is available that older versions would no longer be used. That makes sense to me, but I'm not sure if it always works that way.

When the pharmacist called my name and I went in the little room to get my shot, I told him I wanted to confirm that I'd be injected with the updated 2024 Novavax in a prefilled syringe as I had requested.
 
perchance dreamer said:
I don't know, but I'd assume that once a vaccine has been updated and is available that older versions would no longer be used. That makes sense to me, but I'm not sure if it always works that way.

When the pharmacist called my name and I went in the little room to get my shot, I told him I wanted to confirm that I'd be injected with the updated 2024 Novavax in a prefilled syringe as I had requested.
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Good that you verified that you were receiving the updated version.

A month ago on X I was reading that some received the old version and now have to wait another 3-6 months to get the updated version. They were pretty pissed about it.

The Public Health Agency of Canada As Canadians has ordered to destroy old supplies of the existing vaccine before they can get new supplies. This message was sent out at the beginning of September.
 
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TORONTO — The Public Health Agency of Canada says it is not providing Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine this respiratory virus season, citing low demand.

It says the manufacturer requires a minimum order of its updated protein-based vaccine, called Nuvaxovid, which far exceeds the uptake by Canadians last year.

The agency says a very small portion of the doses ordered in 2023 were used and that its decision reflects efforts to limit vaccine wastage
LINK

:emoji_thinking: I find these statements interesting. Last year during my physical checkup I asked my GP if I could have a Covid jab instead of the a flu jab they offered and she said they don't have any because there is no demand for it. When I was sitting in the waiting room, the receptionist's phones were ringing off the wall from people asking if they had Covid vaccines.
 
Pretty absurd. They have no way to determine demand, and people usually don't even have a choice anyway. I've never seen it available. IIRC last year it was made available, but later than the other ones so by the time it could have been made available, most people were already vaccinated. And anyway once you make it to the place, you take what they have, this isn't a consumer market, it's determined entirely by supply and they fully control it.

There is seriously a huge problem of rampant dishonest in health care. It's clearly seen as perfectly normal, even good, on the basis that they always know better. Technocracy is almost as bad as an aristocracy. It has the exact same "the people are stupideth and we shall decide for them, they don't need to know anything, only need to comply". One thing that doesn't change with humans, we just shift around who hubristically makes most of those decisions but the end result is the same.
 
Moderna under fire after children offered cash to test Covid vaccine

Company targeted 12 to 18 year-olds through WhatsApp with payments of £1,500

Sarah KnaptonScience Editor, the Telegraph
02 October 2024 2:14pm
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Moderna has been rebuked by regulators after offering children cash to test the Covid vaccine.

The pharmaceutical company was ordered to pay £14,000 after it emerged that a representative had sent a WhatsApp message offering £1,500 to children to take part in Covid booster trials.

The UK Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) ruled that the offer amounted to “inappropriate financial inducement” and found the company had brought “discredit upon the pharmaceutical industry”.

The offer was made by a paediatrician from an unnamed NHS trust, inviting those aged between 12 and 18 years old to enrol in the NextCove trial, which was examining the efficacy of Moderna’s booster jab.

The inducement was made even though a research ethics committee had warned about the “large amount of money” that Moderna was offering participants, and voiced concern it was “much higher than would be considered a reasonable reimbursement”.
 
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Is there anywhere an up-to-date summary of where we're at with vaccination and how to think about it? I'd like to have an informed discussion with my GP about risks and benefits, given that I've had some issues twice post-vaccination that may or may not have been vaccine-related, and how to weigh that up against the level of Covid protection that the booster would give me. I can't see anywhere where data are being published on vaccine injury, and whether if you've had a problem once, you're likely to get one again, for instance.
 
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