The COVID-19 Vaccination Progress Thread

[lambers]

Did you book via your GP or the NHS site (or other)? I did my Dad's booking via the NHS site last weekend, and they forced us to book slots for both the first and second vaccinations*, so I'd be interested to know if that's changed.

*Not that this was an inconvenience for us.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Intriguing. That's not supposed to be how it works.

[Incandenza]

I'm eligible starting Monday. All of the city and county mass vaccination sites are only doing second doses right now, though, and it looks like other places like smaller medical centers and pharmacies don't have any available appointments for the near future, so looks like I need to be patient for a while longer.

[San Bernardhinault]

A couple of acquaintances in NYC who are younger than me and have - as far as I knew, at least - no comorbidities have got their first vaccines today. Has New York really already got to that stage? Massachusetts seems to have given 20 doses/100 people, but is still only at the key workers, 65+ers, and multiple pre-conditions phase.

The Massachusetts website has one very weird section on it:

If your group is not specifically listed in either Phase 1 or Phase 2, you will be eligible to receive the vaccine in Phase 3, which we expect to launch in April. The vaccine is expected to be available to the general public, including:

• Higher education workers, including administrators, teaching and non-teaching staff;
• Bottled beverage industry workers;
• Veterinarians

If it's available to everyone, why do they need to specify bottled beverage industry workers? The other two groups, I guess, might think they'd get in as key workers of some sort or other.

[ursus arctos]

There are a lot of angles that one can play here if one is so inclined (we are very much not)

[San Bernardhinault]

Among the ridiculous bits of gaming one could do, I could spend two weeks eating nothing but pizza and beer - and not exercising - and I could probably creep into the "obese" (BMI 30+) category and therefore have a precondition and move up the list. This does not seem like a good incentive structure (unless you manufacture high calorie pizza).

I'm inclined to wait. The missus, who has a real pre-existing condition, is trying to work out how quickly she can get vaccinated and might be inclined to try and find an angle.

[Sporting]

Things are a bit slow and disorganised here. On the bright side, only 2% have refused a vaccine.

https://english.elpais.com/society/2...-vaccines.html

[Capybara]

Did you book via your GP or the NHS site (or other)? I did my Dad's booking via the NHS site last weekend, and they forced us to book slots for both the first and second vaccinations*, so I'd be interested to know if that's changed.

This is how I got mine and I also got a date for the second. When I was done, they asked me if I had a second appointment and recorded the date on the card they gave me to say I'd had the first. Still a bit sore but no other side effects.

[Logan Mountstuart]

Things are slow here too. The main problem being supply by the sounds of it. Really surprisingly for the Netherlands, you would think, is the level of vaccine scepticism, at least in the circles I move in.

Two collegas have already said that all that vaccinating in England hasn't had much effect on the death rates. Stupid bastards. But worrying.

I'm 57, with high blood pressure and asthma, and my work brings me into close contact with well over 50, mostly young people a day. Many of them think I'm wierd when I ask them to kindly step out of my face.

I can't see me being vaccinated until the summer, at the earliest. I'll just have to keep on being extra careful, I suppose.

The saddest thing is that I'm sure there's no way I'll be able to visit my family in England until I'm vaccinated. 14 months and rising.

Sporting implied above that the English are already thinking that their vaccination progress gives them carte blanche to behave however they want abroad.

In the other direction, I wouldn't put it past the English government using their vaccine success, their one success, for political capital and making a show of keeping the unvaccinated whordes out of country.

[ad hoc]

Yes here vaccine scepticism is a serious problem. Spread on social media and more virulent than Covid-19 itself. I don't know if there will ever be a time when we have herd immunity if 30% of the country refuse to be vaccinated

[Sporting]

I'm tending towards the opinion that it should be obligatory.

[Wouter D]

Things are slow here too. The main problem being supply by the sounds of it. Really surprisingly for the Netherlands, you would think, is the level of vaccine scepticism, at least in the circles I move in.

It's really depressing.

[gjw100]

Just booked my jabs through the NHS site. First one this coming Tuesday. Interestingly, the site stated that it was only available to the over 64's (perhaps hasn't been updated?) but I was nevertheless able to proceed to the booking stage after entering my DOB (I'm 60).

[Wouter D]

I'm tending towards the opinion that it should be obligatory.

It isn't that simple.

I presume that you do not just want to kill the people with a compromised immune system. Where exactly do you draw the line when someone is immunocompromised enough to be exempt from your vaccination obligation?

Are you gonna exempt pregnant people from the obligation, given that the effects of the vaccine on unborn children couldn't possibly have been studied yet, and we don't really have the best of track records in this regard?

Do people have to prove that they're allergic to specific ingredients of the vaccine, and if so, how? I mean, I'm allergic to nuts, which isn't relevant to this particular vaccine, but I have no official documentation for this and I really rather not expose myself to the allergen to obtain proof.

I'll gladly get myself vaccinated as soon as I get the opportunity, and I would wish that the vast majority of people would act similarly. But this is a problem with no simple solution.

[Sporting]

I presume that you do not just want to kill the people with a compromised immune system. Where exactly do you draw the line when someone is immunocompromised enough to be exempt from your vaccination obligation?

You presume correctly.

I'm leaning, as I said. Nothing is really clear yet

[Nocturnal Submission]

Just booked my jabs through the NHS site. First one this coming Tuesday. Interestingly, the site stated that it was only available to the over 64's (perhaps hasn't been updated?) but I was nevertheless able to proceed to the booking stage after entering my DOB (I'm 60).

Were you advised to do this by your GP or did you just decide to take this route yourself?

[gjw100]

Were you advised to do this by your GP or did you just decide to take this route yourself?

Entirely on my own initiative, although I now wonder if I've jumped the gun and will be knocked back on the day. It only came about because two friends - one who works as a consultant's secretary and another who is a GP's receptionist - both told me, quite independently of one another, that the over 60's could now book online. Even though the NHS site stated that I had to be over 64, I was still able to make a booking despite my DOB clearly establishing that I'm only 60, and not meeting any of the other qualifying conditions. The fact that there were loads of appointment slots still available to book reassures me that even if I have inadvertently gamed the system I'm not depriving anyone else of their jab. I'll have to wait and see what transpires on Tuesday I guess.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Entirely on my own initiative, although I now wonder if I've jumped the gun and will be knocked back on the day. It only came about because two friends - one who works as a consultant's secretary and another who is a GP's receptionist - both told me, quite independently of one another, that the over 60's could now book online. Even though the NHS site stated that I had to be over 64, I was still able to make a booking despite my DOB clearly establishing that I'm only 60, and not meeting any of the other qualifying conditions. The fact that there were loads of appointment slots still available to book reassures me that even if I have inadvertently gamed the system I'm not depriving anyone else of their jab. I'll have to wait and see what transpires on Tuesday I guess.

Well, hopefully everything works out well for you and you get the vaccine. The only reason I asked the question was because I wasn't sure if I was supposed to wait for my GP to contact me or if there was another route to the jab that I was unaware of. For a surprisingly large number of my now vaccinated friends and acquaintances it seems to be the latter.

[Gangster Octopus]

Mmmm, should I get my wife to ask for a vaccination. She's over sixty, but hasn't been contacted yet.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I'd keep your ear to the ground. If you hear that 55-59-year-olds in your neck of the woods are being contacted, I'd give your GP a call.

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/jessicamontell/status/1365961549396004864?s=21

[Capybara]

Mmmm, should I get my wife to ask for a vaccination. She's over sixty, but hasn't been contacted yet.

It looks like the NHS is inviting over-60s to apply from this week. I'm wondering if they have already updated their website to accept 60s and over and that is why gjw100 's application was accepted.

[ad hoc]

Wife and older daughter astra-zenecad today

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Had my first (Pfizer) jab two days ago. I don't think they're up to 55-59 year olds generally round here yet, I think I was bumped up due to specific health issues I won't bore you with.

Anyway I've had no noticeable reaction (although it's difficult to tell because many of the jab reaction symptoms are similar to what I'm having pretty much every day from my immunotherapy drugs anyway). My relief at this was somewhat spoilt when a pharmacist friend told me this afternoon that whilst bad reactions to the AZ vaccine are usually after the first jab, with Pfizer they tend to happen after the second jab.

[elguapo4]

Talking to my sister today. Everyone in the nursing home that she manages have received both doses of vaccine, except for a couple of staff members, who have received one dose,and are getting the second one next week. This means, hopefully, that they will get through this without a single case of Covid.