The COVID-19 Vaccination Progress Thread

[S. aureus]

The "doses administered per day per million people" there shows how far we have to go. The US is vaccinating faster than the UK or Canada, but at 771 doses/day it will take a little over 7 years to vaccinate the entire population, or 5 years for 70% of it (assuming 2 doses per person).

[Nocturnal Submission]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-55514243

I presume that the Chinese are using a locally-developed vaccine.

The French roll-out does seem to be farcically slow.

[Moonlight Shadow]

The missus is getting her jab next Monday (Pfizer one)!

[Incandenza]

Because she understands that other Germans are at greater risk than she is

I prefer this approach than the politicians here who complained about people "overreacting" to COVID and saying it isn't that bad rushing to be the first ones to get it. On the other hand, I don't mind assholes like Pence getting it in a photo op as a way to encourage skeptics to get it.

[Incandenza]

An indication of how it's going in the US:

https://mobile.twitter.com/kendallybrown/status/1345062780144025600

[Satchmo Distel]

A Glaswegian friend of mine, who is 58 and has no pre-existing conditions, has been given a vaccination appointment for June 10, so it looks as though Scotland has a good sorting system in place. He says it's done using National Insurance numbers which are presumably matched to age lists and maybe health lists (depending on whether they are just going by date of birth or including medical history).

In my county we seem to have 500 slots available per day so June might be optimistic for us (aged in our fifties in a county where the average age is higher) unless those slots increase. I have also made enquiries via my university for whether instructors can get some priority and my supervisor has said she will raise it with our Faculty Senate reps.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Hmmmm, 10th June for a 57-year-old sounds a bit pessimistic. I'm two years older and one suggestion that I've seen is that I'll have received a jab before Easter, though obviously there's an awful lot of guesswork going on at the moment.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I'm 72 and I think it unlikely I'll be vaccinated by Easter. Indications are that it'll be early spring before they get to people under 80.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Well, meteorological spring starts on 1st March and Easter is 4th April, so...

Obviously programme roll-out rates will vary from country to country though.

[Janik]

It's going to take many months, if not years, to get through everyone, guys. Why? Because this is very different from a 'flu innoculations, that these days comes in a pre-packed syringe that can be easily stored, quickly ripped open and delivered in a pharmacy, effectively done in 30 seconds. But those jabs have only got to that sort of efficiency after many years of additional development. These vaccines still need a health care professional to prep and deliver them, which means an appointment of a few minutes. Even if each session is only 2.5 minutes (and I doubt it can be that fast for social distancing and privacy reasons), it is still five times as slow. And that is before considering that nursing staff are running thin on the ground at the moment...

[Amor de Cosmos]

Well, meteorological spring starts on 1st March and Easter is 4th April, so...

Obviously programme roll-out rates will vary from country to country though.

March isn't Spring in these parts. I think Janik's right. I'm not holding my breath, though there are several new vaccines in the pipeline I believe which could speed delivery up. Canada has pre-ordered a total of six IIRC.

[San Bernardhinault]

I think the last couple of weeks are already evidence of what Janik appears to be getting at: the actual barrier to getting everyone vaccinated may well not be the pace of manufacture and delivery of vaccines, but the time it takes for the process of sticking them in peoples' arms and the relative lack of people qualified to do that.

[Nocturnal Submission]

During the national lockdown announcement, Johnson said that the country is aiming to have vaccinated (well, first jab presumably) the first four high priority groups by mid-February. So that's elderly care home residents and their carers, frontline health and social care workers, the clinically extremely vulnerable and all those aged 70 and over.

Ambitious.

[Hot Pepsi]

I'm just hoping they can reopen Pennsylvania universities in a kinda normal way by next September.

[Moonlight Shadow]

It's going to take many months, if not years, to get through everyone, guys. Why? Because this is very different from a 'flu innoculations, that these days comes in a pre-packed syringe that can be easily stored, quickly ripped open and delivered in a pharmacy, effectively done in 30 seconds. But those jabs have only got to that sort of efficiency after many years of additional development. These vaccines still need a health care professional to prep and deliver them, which means an appointment of a few minutes. Even if each session is only 2.5 minutes (and I doubt it can be that fast for social distancing and privacy reasons), it is still five times as slow. And that is before considering that nursing staff are running thin on the ground at the moment...

The biggest issue is not the administering of the vaccine, it is actually a relatively simple procedure even with those new products. The real issue is adverse reaction, only a fully trained nurse would be able to deal with an anaphylactic shock.

[Janik]

IIRC your wife is a nurse isn't she, MS? You would be better informed than me then... but that still means effectively the same issue, that it needs proper appointments. People can't be lined up in a room, jabbed and then 'NEXT!' like with MMR inoculations for school kids, etc.

[Moonlight Shadow]

IIRC your wife is a nurse isn't she, MS? You would be better informed than me then... but that still means effectively the same issue, that it needs proper appointments. People can't be lined up in a room, jabbed and then 'NEXT!' like with MMR inoculations for school kids, etc.

We were actually discussing that! Yeah, the only way around would be having a team of trained assistants (the jab is not IV or intramuscular so hard to screw up an innoculation) with a supervisory nurse for emergency (but this means a less than ideal safety situation).

I would volunteer, I have been trained during my army days, up to IV level but the requirements to join a team are too high for me sadly.

[Hot Pepsi]

IIRC your wife is a nurse isn't she, MS? You would be better informed than me then... but that still means effectively the same issue, that it needs proper appointments. People can't be lined up in a room, jabbed and then 'NEXT!' like with MMR inoculations for school kids, etc.

We had people lined up outside for testing, so maybe it could be done that way.

[ChrisJ]

We had people lined up outside for testing, so maybe it could be done that way.

My parents said they were lined up (at a distance) and conveyor-ed along in a way that surprised me, but they seemed happy with it. Haven't heard whether their second jabs will be delayed yet.

MrsCJ has been accepted as a vaccinator-helper but is very disappointed she'll not be allowed to actually administer the jabs. I think they'll need to keep an eye on her.

[Jimski]

Flu vaccines need a proper appointment too, don't they? I mean one can have them done at a pharmacy (as I did), but I still had a time slot, and all-in-all it took around 5 minutes.

[jwdd27]

With 2 vaccines approved (and a third on the way) is there likely to be any element of choice as to which one you get? Mrs D is patriotically in favour of the Oxford/AZ jab, but if she were offered one of the others, would there be an option to wait? She at the moment is Group 9 (over 50s), but if she gets a diagnosis for her current illness she may shoot up the rankings.
Meanwhile, I will turn 50 in April next year, I think it will touch and go if I get the jab before then.

[DCI Harry Batt]

During the national lockdown announcement, Johnson said that the country is aiming to have vaccinated (well, first jab presumably) the first four high priority groups by mid-February. So that's elderly care home residents and their carers, frontline health and social care workers, the clinically extremely vulnerable and all those aged 70 and over.

Ambitious.

"Ambitious" is one word for it, yeah

[S. aureus]

Why would anybody put any stock into anything that comes out of Johnson's mouth is beyond me.

[ale]

My dad coming up for 90 years of age in April has still to received a date for vaccination. What is just as frustrating is that nowhere online can you find exactly which surgeries are now rolling out the programme in his area of SW Durham. I appreciate why surgereies are not encouraging calls from public on this very matter but nobody is being helped by the silence on the or lack of clarity.

[Capybara]

My mother is 92 and hasn't been contacted yet. They know she exists because she got the correspondence for those who were, and are again, supposed to be shielding. Like you, I know why surgeries don't want calls, but a bit more information would be helpful simply for reassurance. Reports today are that 23% of over-80s have been vaccinated.