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Coronavirus

Coronavirus - The Poll

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I’ve had the call for mine. They can only offer me tomorrow at the moment which I can’t do so need to call back on Monday to get an appointment for next week. I’m in my 40s, quite a few guys where I work who are in their 60s and still not heard anything yet, and told to sit and wait if they enquire.
 
My mum and dad both got their invites too, and are 46 and 47 respectively. Mum has already had both doses due to being a healthcare worker, but my Dad was very pleased, and has booked his for next Thursday.

Very intriguing; I thought the vaccination centres were being strongly urged to book no under-50s unless they were in a priority group? I guess Gloucestershire (the county I live in) has been said to be very rapid at vaccinating compared with other regions in the UK, so maybe they’ve gotten through all of their priority groups and second doses already?
 
There's essentially two separate vaccination drives going on at present, something I wasn't fully aware of until I started volunteering. The first is through the NHS mass vaccination sites. That's where you'll get your "blue letter" from the NHS inviting you to book on the NHS website. You'd then be offered a mass vaccination location, which are at the likes of exhibition centres, sports stadiums and some smaller ones such as pharmacies which have had areas converted to allow a group of treatment rooms. These sites are predominately working down the age groups set by the government.

The other is the GP led vaccinations, which is where the disparity around the country appears to be. The location for these is either the doctor's surgeries, or in the case of where I live, a large locally led mass vaccination site as all surgeries are part of one local GP federation. GPs are working down their own individual lists of patients according to the stocks of vaccines that they have. If people don't turn up, or if they have worked through the upper age groups, then it appears that they are calling up those who are typically below that age group limit of 50 in some places.
 
Here in the Forest of Dean, our local vaccination is done predominantly at one “mass” site so to speak that covers all of the GP surgeries in the Forest of Dean. From what I can tell, they seem to be calling people up quite quickly compared with some other areas; as I said earlier, I think I read somewhere that Gloucestershire is one of the most quickly vaccinating areas of the UK, if not the quickest.

Where I live, you can either go to the local site (this is where you are initially offered the vaccine from, and where the vast majority of people I know have gone), the mass vaccination centre at Ashton Gate Stadium in Bristol, or Boots in Gloucester, a pharmacy hub.
 
One of the things I find interesting regarding the vaccines is this. I had mine at Macclesfield Hospital. Dad had his in Alsager on Tuesday morning. Mum had hers in Tunstall last Tuesday, which isn’t even in our county or health authority area! We thought it a bit odd, but Tunstall’s about 30 minutes from us at most. We all live in the same house, but have all had to go to different places to get our vaccines. The strange thing is that we’ve got a vaccination centre in Congleton less than ten minutes’ walk from our house, and Mum got a text encouraging her to book an appointment there the day she got her vaccine! Mildly frustrating, but she wasn’t bothered. I think she was quite glad to be going somewhere different for once! :p
 
Yup, there's a fair bit of distance people are travelling for their vaccinations at the moment due to the lack of availability. I was at a pharmacy in Middlesbrough yesterday, yet there were people coming down from Newcastle for their vaccine. That's despite mass vaccination centres being closer at Newcastle, Sunderland, Durham, Darlington and some other pharmacies being closer than where they ended up travelling. They just couldn't get an appointment elsewhere. Basically, the message has been if you're willing to travel for it do so, if you can't - hang fire for your GP to call you up.
 
@Craig I’d be intrigued to know; do you volunteer at a local vaccination centre, or one of the mass facilities?

Also, if you’re at liberty to say; are the first doses you’re administering at the moment an equal split between Pfizer and AstraZeneca, or is there a greater bias towards a particular vaccine? I’m only wondering because at the moment, most places near me seem to only be offering AstraZeneca for the most part; I was certainly very lucky to get a Pfizer appointment.
 
With the lower volume of vaccine this month some vaccination centres are going into hybinating mode for the next month.
Telford, Shrewsbury, and Oswestry are all taking a 4 week break.


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The rate of case decrease may be levelling off, but the vaccine impact is really beginning to be seen now, as hospitalisations and deaths are continuing to fall at a dramatic rate; this Twitter post from COVID Fact Check UK really puts into perspective how drastically the vaccination program has affected the important metric of hospitalisations and deaths:


Bear in mind that the people currently being admitted/dying would have caught COVID back when we’d administered far less doses (probably only around 10-15m at that point), so the vaccine impact should grow even higher once our current dose total begins to be reflected in the hospitalisation and death figures.
 
Also you have to realise we have only just got to the end of the high risk first dose. I can't wait to see the outcome 6 weeks after the last second dose for high risk.

The drop in vaccine supplies for the month has had a good affect on the vaccine centre staff. As it is giving them a lower work load and some a rest before 40 to 49 age range start getting vaccinated.



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Matt N said:
@Craig I’d be intrigued to know; do you volunteer at a local vaccination centre, or one of the mass facilities?

Also, if you’re at liberty to say; are the first doses you’re administering at the moment an equal split between Pfizer and AstraZeneca, or is there a greater bias towards a particular vaccine? I’m only wondering because at the moment, most places near me seem to only be offering AstraZeneca for the most part; I was certainly very lucky to get a Pfizer appointment.
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I'm only volunteering as a steward, so non clinical role - just managing queues, directing people and having a chat with them while waiting etc. It's all via the Royal Volunteer Service and you book onto shifts through the Goodsam app. Three of my shifts have been at mass vaccination centres and one at a pharmacy site (which is still on the national system). With the change in doses, those shifts are all but dropping off next week as mass sites are either hibernating as Delta said, or are able to be managed without the need for RVS volunteers as numbers are so low.

All the sites I've been at have been AstraZeneca. As far as I'm aware, Pfizer is only being used in very limited locations and circumstances now due to the lower supply and the difficulty in storing it. It was briefly used at our GP led vaccination site while the AZ vaccines came online, but they've since switched too.
 
First Pfizer dose is done and dusted! It was absolutely fine; less painful than I was expecting, for sure, and over within a second!

For anyone unsure about getting the vaccine, or anyone who’s a bit nervous like I was; I recommend just going for it, as it was way less painful than I’d expected. To be honest, I’m just relieved to have gotten the first dose out of the way!
 
Matt N said:
First Pfizer dose is done and dusted! It was absolutely fine; less painful than I was expecting, for sure, and over within a second!

For anyone unsure about getting the vaccine, or anyone who’s a bit nervous like I was; I recommend just going for it, as it was way less painful than I’d expected. To be honest, I’m just relieved to have gotten the first dose out of the way!
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Pretty much exactly the same as my experience when I had the Pfizer vaccine. Glad to hear it all went really well! :)
 
I wouldn't be nervous about getting any of the vaccines. Just bear in mind there can be some unpleasant side effects in comparison to others most of us have been having during our lifetimes to date. Still, the side effects were no worse than feeling a bit ill for a couple of days and a sore arm.

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Had my first jab (asteazenica), I had mine at boots.
Overall it went pretty well with the check in person even giving the next person in the chain a heads up I use a tablet to speak but can hear!

They do seem to be having a lot of issues with the system and notably the bit on the tablets, it took them a while to find my info on the tablet and it sounded like one staffer said something about not particularly liking the tablets.
 
Matt.GC said:
I wouldn't be nervous about getting any of the vaccines. Just bear in mind there can be some unpleasant side effects in comparison to others most of us have been having during our lifetimes to date. Still, the side effects were no worse than feeling a bit ill for a couple of days and a sore arm.

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Absolutely; everyone reacts differently to these things. I was reading the informational booklet that came with my Pfizer vaccine, and it listed a whole plethora of side effects of variable severity. I haven’t developed any yet besides a slightly sore arm, but I only had the jab a few hours ago.

Apparently your chances of side effects are increased if you’ve had COVID before; the man who vaccinated me said that people who’ve previously been infected are more predisposed to longer-lasting and more severe side effects.
 
Matt N said:
Absolutely; everyone reacts differently to these things. I was reading the informational booklet that came with my Pfizer vaccine, and it listed a whole plethora of side effects of variable severity. I haven’t developed any yet besides a slightly sore arm, but I only had the jab a few hours ago.

Apparently your chances of side effects are increased if you’ve had COVID before; the man who vaccinated me said that people who’ve previously been infected are more predisposed to longer-lasting and more severe side effects.
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Presumably because the body sees the vaccine as covid so goes full double red alert.
 
imanautie said:
Presumably because the body sees the vaccine as covid so goes full double red alert.
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Actually all vaccines can cause the symptoms described. Unlike other drugs which have a direct chemical effect that is moderately predictable, vaccines stimulate an immune response and the immune reaction is very individual.

The difference at the moment is so many people are being vaccinated for the same thing at the same time so people are talking more about their experience as it’s so topical, whereas with any other vaccine in the past if someone has a strong reaction they just grumbled to their family a bit and moved on.
 
Dave said:
Actually all vaccines can cause the symptoms described. Unlike other drugs which have a direct chemical effect that is moderately predictable, vaccines stimulate an immune response and the immune reaction is very individual.

The difference at the moment is so many people are being vaccinated for the same thing at the same time so people are talking more about their experience as it’s so topical, whereas with any other vaccine in the past if someone has a strong reaction they just grumbled to their family a bit and moved on.
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I know to an extent they all do but wouldn't previous exposure likely cause the body to be ready to react?
 
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