NHS staff NOT first in the queue for vaccine

lemongrove

I rest my case ?
Everything is terrible isn’t it Whitewave .......even though next week elderly people will be vaccinated against the danger of a ghastly illness and death!

Quite right.
Be thankful! We're the first in the world to get this vaccine.

I agree that this should not be a political issue, but it is very hard indeed to separate the great news about the worldwide vaccination development success and the blatant use of this news to score political points by our useless Brexit at any cost government. Am I the only one tired of the lies, the embarassing bluster? I am quietly optimistic about the vaccine, but hopelessly pessimistic about our government's ability to administer it properly and without making political capital out of it. And, before I get accused of being a 'leftie', I would be just as pessimistic if this was a Labour government covering up their ineptitude by using lies and xenophobic flim flam to score political points.

JenniferEccles

Has anyone else noticed a correlation between optimism/pessimism and people’s political leanings?

Funny you should say that, I have noticed a correlation between realism and political leanings.

Sadly I think it's now beyond politics ,its about leadership,morals and character. Increasingly people want honest facts and decisions. Political policies/agendas over the past two decades may have exacerbated the situation. That can be debated at a later date. What we need now is a clear plan and justification of both what will happen and honest explanation of why it hasn't.

superficial, blind optimism perhaps.

I certainly am very optimistic, happy, positive person in real life - but this dreadful greedy, selfish, lying ERG Governement makes me despair.

No eye roll emoji unfortunately. Would be nice to leave politics out of it for a bit.

Has anyone else noticed a correlation between optimism/pessimism and people’s political leanings?

I disagree, but more importantly this should (and could) have been thrashed out weeks ago rather than encouraging people to have unrealistic expectations. It also undermines rational decisions and genuine concerns and will only encourage those who are sceptical about vaccinations and masks, etc.

I am prepared to accept decisions with which I disagree, but I won't accept flip-flopping around and empty promises because we have "leaders" who sway with whoever shouts loudest and don't have the courage to tell people things they don't like.

Agreed Gagajo, we are forever being told to avoid getting covid19 to 'protect the NHS' so surely that is where we should start? Get people back to work in hospitals and clinics, delivery of the vaccine should be easier in a hospital than anywhere else too.

Whatever age you are, if you get Covid and there aren't enough medical staff you're screwed. Giving it to medics first helps us all.

This government gets some things wrong and some things right.All countries are having a hard time right now and will do for some years to come, I totally agree lemon, but the incoherent ramblings of Johnson who seems to have no control over the lies of his cabinet colleagues do not inspire confidence. Maybe if they had made less of the flag waving 'we done it because we are out of the EU' and a bit more sensible statements about the logistics of delivery most of us would feel a bit more confident. Yes, I am delighted that a vaccine is on its way, but I am angered that many people have been misled and given false hope. Yet again.

Can I add armed forces to the list as high up the order for protecting us all from danger?

Yes Willow that's true.

Biba and EllanVannin thank you.

EllanVannin, they are vaccinating over 80s who are actually already at the hospitals, so they are more vulnerable than anybody else. Staff will be next in line. I think it has to be a good thing if it prevents hospital patients dying, which they are doing when they have gone into hospital for something else altogether, and staff on the front line would want that - they feel massive and long-standing grief and guilt when patients on their wards die from Covid.

NHS,POLICE,FIREMEN all should be first. After that give it to the youngsters who are going to carry on socialising no matter how many lockdowns we have to have. Once they are given it then we will be safer going out and socialising.

EllanVannin

I would willingly forego any jab to allow someone from the NHS to have theirs. Afterall, just because my age takes me to the top of the list doesn't mean that those like me are " vulnerable " when we hardly go out of the door. Whereas, the workers have no choice, they're usually in the thick of it.

We " vulnerable " at least have choices-----stay in.

Exactly and totally, same here. Same for carers and teachers.

Loved the 80 year old lady on the news yeasterday who said she thinks carers should be having the vaccine first- that she has had a wonderful life, and that she is not a priority.

With so few vaccines on the way, how are they going to decide which over 80 will be having it first? Which region? Logistics apart, surely there are more than 400.000 80 year olds in the UK.

This is really shocking Ellianne. The worth of every individual? We are all worth the same. Some are still working and some are not. What about the life of my housebound cousin who worked 30 years in the NHS but can no longer do it? Shall we just tell him, sorry, you're not worth it any more?

Practically, the NHS will be protected by preventing as many people as possible from needing to go into hospital or dying. Old people are more likely to get ill and die, therefore they get the vaccine.

Saving the "worthy" over the "less worthy" is the first step to eugenics.

As for the "I'll just stay indoors" brigade - have you seen the many posts from people saying they don't know how they got Covid because they never go anywhere? Thank goodness the priority is set by clinical need and practical considerations of distribution, and not by sentiment.

My 56 year old D is more vulnerable than myself ! Border control.

I would willingly forego any jab to allow someone from the NHS to have theirs. Afterall, just because my age takes me to the top of the list doesn't mean that those like me are " vulnerable " when we hardly go out of the door. Whereas, the workers have no choice, they're usually in the thick of it.

We " vulnerable " at least have choices-----stay in.

Somewhere along the line do we not have to consider the worth of each and every individual, by that I mean their contribution to society as a whole. Who can help us most when it comes to the crunch? Do we not need to protect them first before they themselves are overwhelmed?

I've just had a conversation with family members in New Zealand, a doctor and midwife. Both trained in the UK (Barts), they were desperate to jump on a plane home in the early days to give back to the NHS and to help those in need. Sadly 9 months down the line they are saying one of the reasons they moved to NZ to work was because they disagreed with the way the NHS was run here. Seems they now feel vindicated.

I think that when the vaccines are given to care homes, there won’t be a choice whether or not to have it.

This worries me greatly because it seems as though the vulnerable are being used as guinea pigs. My adult daughter is in a care home and has multiple health issues; her birth mother drank heavily. She has epilepsy, SLD and hormonal imbalance, amongst other things.

I’m equally as scared of the vaccine as Covid itself, for her, because testing can’t possibly have taken into account her myriad of conditions.

DiscoDancer1975

Whatever anyone decides won’t sit well with someone. The government can’t do right for doing wrong, and now the wrong people are being vaccinated first? I just pray it works, and that unexpected side effects don’t wipe out our entire NHS staff!! Then we really would be stuffed. Happy Christmas everyone ?.

Why would side effects wipe out our NHS staff? They're not going to be vaccinated for a while and the plan always was to vaccinate them in batches, in case they feel a bit rough after being vaccinated.

The priority must be to protect the most vulnerable, so that NHS staff and care home workers aren't overwhelmed.

Ellianne

I so agree with you GagaJo and actually think you as teacher should be higher too. I am way down the priority list, it doesn't bother me too much. I could easily stay cocooned at home, but choose not to. If I were a vulnerable very elderly person I might even choose to give my jab to a nurse first if I could. You're right we need healthcare workers to stay healthy to be there for us if we catch Covid, but we also need them kept healthy to man all the other departments in the hospitals.

No, we need to try to stop the most vulnerable needing hospital care and maybe dying.

Only 400,000 people will be vaccinated before the end of 2020. The most vulnerable need to be protected. That has been the JCVI policy since the beginning of September.

I disagree with any lobbying from groups such as teachers. There are other ways they could be protected.

Daisymae

I think that the issue is that initially the government led people believe that NHS staff would be first. However age being the greatest indicator of mortality when covid strikes, more deaths can be prevented by targeting care homes/elderly. The bottom line is the confusion and erroding of confidence is damaging the government. It feels like they don't have a plan, or people doing the announcing don't have authority. Or maybe they haven't read the plan?

No, they didn't. Initially, they stuck with the JCVI priority list, which has always stated that care home residents and workers would be first.

Then the government did a U turn and said on Tuesday that NHS workers would be prioritised because there are problems with transport and storage, which they've known about for months, so they could actually have planned for that.

Then there was yet another U turn yesterday. Now care home workers will be first on the list, if they can get to one of the hospital hubs, plus any over 80s (not necessarily care home residents) who are already inpatients or are due to go to an outpatient appointment within a narrow timeframe.

What really annoys me is the lack of transparency and planning. The government has known about the logistical problems for ages, but has brushed them aside. It must have known for weeks that there would be problems getting the vaccine to care homes.

Additionally, it has now said the tests which would have enabled care home residents to have visitors are unreliable.

It would appear that there won't be any new doses of the vaccine until the new year because Pfizer has problems in its supply chain, so people who might have been looking forward to seeing friends and relatives at Christmas (maybe their last Christmas) have had their hopes built up and been let down.