Vaccinations from next week

7sx2k

I'll wait and see what happens when we hear/see others who have been vaccinated first.

Why .???? What do you think is going to happen .? If you get Covid while you’re waiting will you have treatment !

I can feel queue rage coming on. We all (I hope) want to be first. What fantastic news - thank you to all those who have made this possible

The 800,000 doses of vaccine arriving this week are only the first consignment, there are many more consignments due before the end of the year.

This is why we can't have nice things.....

The 80,000 is the first delivery and it will be for use before Christmas. The UK have ordered 40 million doses in total which will be delivered over the next few months, probably in parallel with other approved vaccines from other manufacturers. Supply will be limited by the rate at which it can be manufactured and the rate at which we can vaccinate people.

Did you really write only 400,000 people ? 400,000 people! Did you expect everybody to be vaccinated on the same day?

Cross post GG13

This is the translated version of what the German health minister has just said:

"We have member states including, Germany, who could have issued such an emergency authorisation but we decided against this and opted for a common European approach to move forward together."

I really am angry that something which should have been good news has been turned into a political football by the government trying to make out that the UK is "exceptional" and has lied about it being a benefit of Brexit. It's a German vaccine, produced by an American company - nothing British about it.

Not only that, but everybody has been led to think that the vaccination programme was ready to start, when it isn't and at this stage there's no guarantee when the UK will receive more doses.

GrannyGravy13

The 800,000 doses of vaccine arriving this week are only the first consignment, there are many more consignments due before the end of the year.

Where did you get that from?

I have just seen the Head Honcho of Pfizer UK explaining that the vaccine remains stable in a normal fridge for up to five days.

I cannot see the point of looking for hurdles and problems before the vaccine is even on UK soil!

growstuff the Head Honcho of Pfizer has just been on the BBC explaining the production and delivery timelines.

Alegrias2

This is why we can't have nice things.....

The 80,000 is the first delivery and it will be for use before Christmas. The UK have ordered 40 million doses in total which will be delivered over the next few months, probably in parallel with other approved vaccines from other manufacturers. Supply will be limited by the rate at which it can be manufactured and the rate at which we can vaccinate people.

Did you really write only 400,000 people ? 400,000 people! Did you expect everybody to be vaccinated on the same day?

I didn't, but I did expect the most vulnerable (ie elderly people in care homes) to be first priority, which has been government policy all the time. There is now no guarantee when they will get their vaccinations. I feel so sorry for them because some of them have effectively been locked away since March and this would have enabled them to see family at minimal risk.

It would appear that there are no guarantees when any more doses will arrive and when they do, there will still be the problem of storage.

GrannyGravy13

I have just seen the Head Honcho of Pfizer UK explaining that the vaccine remains stable in a normal fridge for up to five days.

I cannot see the point of looking for hurdles and problems before the vaccine is even on UK soil!

I'm not looking for hurdles and problems. That's what the BBC is saying. Once again, people have been encouraged to hope for too much.

growstuff it has already been announced that care home residents are able to have visitors with the roll out of the lateral flow Covid test, it was on the news this morning.

Best to wait and see what unfolds rather than jump to conclusions.

growstuff I'm sorry, but you really do seem to be looking for the negatives in all this. There is a clinical priority list but they have always said that the rollout would not adhere to that if, for instance, the vaccine had proved not to be effective for the older people. Luckily, it is effective. It turns out that the vaccine may be unstable when moved so they are going to start by vaccinating the people that they can reach easily.

The volume of doses ordered is huge, not enough for everybody, that's for sure, but if the government had ordered 50 million doses at huge cost, and then it hadn't worked, what would everybody be saying then?

I used to be a Project Manager. One of the best parts of the job was discovering what the "challenges" were and then getting things in place to overcome them. I'm sure that's going on right now. They couldn't plan for everything to be 100% from the start, because there were so many unknowns.

I don't think people have been encouraged to hope for too much. Even Mr Optimistic, Boris Johnson, was careful to say this wasn't going to end all our troubles at once.

The staff in care homes and those in frontline roles in the NHS surely do need to be vaccinated at the beginning, as they are passing the virus on (inadvertently because they are often asymptomatic) to the most vulnerable, as well as being at the highest risk of picking it up at work and needing time off sick which affects the ability of the Care home and NHS to look after others?

Totally agree with you Alegrias2

Thanks to this uplifting thread of yours Alegrias2 I for one will go to bed happier in my mind tonight. This has been such a horrid and anxious year for so many people. Let’s try to embrace this GOOD NEWS. It is of course exactly what we were all hoping to hear about, during those dark days of March and April.
?

Just caught a bit on tv news. Explanation that vaccine is safe, tested on 44,000 people. Minimal numbers reported very short lived minor effects such as a fever or headache. Why has it been so quick ? Because usually those who produce it have to persuade drug companies to take it, not the case this time. Plus scientists have created their desks to work on it.etc etc. So please can people stop this “I’ll wait and see ‘ attitude , it’s a while since anything riled me as much as that does !!

trisher 400,000 is an awful lot of people. And surely 400,000 is better than none at all. We have to start somewhere!!!

JVT being spectacularly good on the briefing at the moment. ?

Alegrias2

Don't care NotSpaghetti

Today is a happy day

Yes, it is. But still passive-aggressive.
No need for it.

urmstongran
I am certainly no expert and can’t quote dates and times but I have heard quite a few eminent medical and scientific people explaining that,as COVID is a type of flu, it has been easier to develop this vaccine than it normally would be. They weren’t starting from scratch.

JVT has apparently said that lifting of restrictions will depend on the take up of the vaccine.

Small take up and we could still be under the tier system next summer/autumn...........

I am sure I will get lots of abuse for this , the Pfizer vaccine is produced and delivered from a place called Puurs a town of about 17.000 people near Zaventem in Belgium. Also close to Antwerp the second largest freight port in Europe.

Could the immediate delivery have anything to do with Brexit and possible tariffs or delays after the 30th of December.

Just an old cynic me.

EllanVannin is right to be cautious.

It is not a case of Britain taking advantage of new-found freedoms enabled by Brexit, the UK will remain under the European Medicines Agency's regulatory system until the end of the transition period. Today's decision has been possible thanks to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 which allow Britain's medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to grant temporary emergency use authorisation in circumstances such as this.
Concern has been raised at the speed of MHRA 's decision and today, Berkeley Phillips, medical director of Pfizer suggested regulatory bodies had all the data needed but, that MHRA had been prepared to'read the individual chapter of a book' rather than wait for the whole book to be written.
Full published results are still in preparation.
Phillips said it will work with any problems associated with the roll out and hope they don't suffer the curse of the early adopter!
41,000 took part in the study. 170 went on to catch Covid. Of these, 162 were in the group given the placebo and just 8 had been given the vaccine.
There are 2 unanswered questions on the vaccine.
While the trials have proved it can provide immunity for the person vaccinated, they were not designed to show whether the vaccine stops transmitting the virus to others - nor how long the immunity lasts.
The phase 3 trials only began in July so have not been able to study immunity effects for longer than that. Monitoring will be done for the next 2 years for those who have the vaccine in which time it will be seen if it needs to be administered only once, boosted every few years or even, every few months.
Pfizer ran the tests (no independent analysis)

PS

It is an RNA vaccine and you can learn what's in it and how it works here...

www.lbc.co.uk/hot-topics/coronavirus/what-ingredients-are-in-pfizer-covid-vaccine/