Vaccine groups

I think all NHS frontline should be vaccinated as a priority
Those who want to wait should not be offered the vaccine until everyone over the age of 18 has had a chance to take it if they want to

I can have an opinion with no vested interest, since I'm teaching overseas now. I also think teachers should be higher on the priority list.

If what we want is schools open, we need to make it safer for those at the chalk face to be there.

Teachers are living under so much uncertainty and fear at the moment, that the vaccine is the least they deserve if they are due to restart term in a few weeks.

Kate1949 well I wish him well. I will certainly be glad to get mine

Thank you Madwoman. I'll be glad to get mine too.

farview

I'm really really not sure yet that I would want the vaccine...and if I had to have it...my gut feeling would be for the Oxford vaccine....tin hat on now and behind the settee...

Same here farview. I would rather stay home and wait for the Oxford one. I have allergies and been put off by the Pfizer one.
I've just joined you behind the settee. Can't find me tin hat!

Ellianne

You are so right to say we are all entitled to our views Sarnia on that issue. Our opinions are often shaped by our own experiences.
My parents died when I was young,, so for the last 40 years I have not had the responsibility for elderly relatives. I don't think that makes me any less compassionate, but it has made me value the lives of my own children and grandchildren more. That is maybe why I am perhaps more concerned about children, their education, and their mental and physical health than worrying about the very old. This also ties in with your opening comment about who it is that will be getting this country back on its feet economically.

You really need to read the criteria which were used by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to decide the priority list.

The sole aims are to save lives and to take pressure off hospital beds. As the over 65s make up the bulk of those in hospital, it's logical to try and prevent them from becoming seriously ill.

The priorities have nothing to do with anybody's value to society, but a pragmatic decision to take pressure off the NHS.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/priority-groups-for-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-advice-from-the-jcvi-2-december-2020/priority-groups-for-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-advice-from-the-jcvi-2-december-2020

We still don't know whether any of the vaccines will stop transmission, so they could be of very limited and expensive use to those who are less likely to become seriously ill. People will still need to wear masks and socially distance themselves, vaccine or not.

The main problem in schools is that it is the pupils who are infecting others and there have not been any trials on under 16s. It's not even definite that there would be enough doses for everybody over 16. The people who need vaccinating are the elderly/vulnerable relatives of school pupils.

Will we get a choice over which vaccine we get?

sharon103

farview

I'm really really not sure yet that I would want the vaccine...and if I had to have it...my gut feeling would be for the Oxford vaccine....tin hat on now and behind the settee...

Same here farview. I would rather stay home and wait for the Oxford one. I have allergies and been put off by the Pfizer one.
I've just joined you behind the settee. Can't find me tin hat!

I think it is acceptable if people want to choose the vaccine they would like but if they refuse the first offered they must then wait until everyone else has been vaccinated before offered again
I don’t care which I have as long as it works

sharon103

farview

I'm really really not sure yet that I would want the vaccine...and if I had to have it...my gut feeling would be for the Oxford vaccine....tin hat on now and behind the settee...

Same here farview. I would rather stay home and wait for the Oxford one. I have allergies and been put off by the Pfizer one.
I've just joined you behind the settee. Can't find me tin hat!

As a matter of interest, what's your reason for preferring the AZ/Oxford vaccine? So far, the evidence suggests it's less likely to be protective than the Pfizer/BioNTech one. I doubt if there'll be a choice.

Kate1949

Will we get a choice over which vaccine we get?

I can't see how we would be offered a choice. The centres need to use up the vaccines they have and can't run the risk of running out of one and having surplus of the other.

In any case, the UK has only ordered a limited number of the Pfizer vaccine and I'm not sure that the supply issues with it have been sorted.

That's what I was thinking growstuff.

You really need to read the criteria which were used by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to decide the priority.
You really need to stop jumping on my back with every comment I make growstuff. You really do insult my intelligence, but worse still my empathy with all groups. I know all about saving the NHS, vulnerable people etc etc. We hear enough about your personal circumstances and views, so why criticise others for theirs?

With the millions of people who need and want to be vaccinated, it’s unrealistic to expect that a choice will be offered, other than for very specific medical reasons. If you don’t have the vaccination when it’s offered to you it’s unlikely that you will get an offer again until the end of the vaccination programme - which is as it should be. It’s up to each of us to weigh up the options, but be prepared to wait for at least six months for a second chance if you decline the first offer.

Is that sort of in line with if you refuse an operation or procedure you go to the back of the queue? I know of a friend who turned down a two week wait scan (to go on holiday!) and then had to wait another 2 weeks from the date she had been offered. Fair enough.

I had 1st jab Dec.20th 2nd jab is Jan,9th. No side effects and very well organised. I think anyone who doesn't take 1st offer should be put to back of the queue.

I think it’s the logistics, they will be calling people in order of the priority groups, and most vaccinations will be delivered from mass and community vaccination centres, with a minority through GP surgeries as they don’t have capacity to take on the numbers. The centres will work through the lists in order, so those who refuse the first offer will be put to the end of the programme, it’s got to be targeted to get the maximum numbers through in the shortest timeframe.
I think GPs will have to concentrate on the housebound and care homes first, then very elderly who have no means of getting to a mass vaccination centre. A few GP practices are administering the Pfizer vaccine, and I’d imagine they are making sure all their clinics are full because the vaccine has to be destroyed if the batch isn’t all used in a session, so some people may be lucky enough to be called out of sequence to avoid wastage.

I feel annoyed with those that won’t be vaccinated. They will wait inside until the rest of us have the vaccine they are scared of having. COVID won’t go until we are all done, these people that won’t be done so that our youngsters can have a normal life are selfish. The only way in the past we got rid of smallpox, tb, polio etc was immunisation. It comes back into the population from those that wouldn’t have it. They would not presumably say no to a hospital bed if they got it. I thinkbw3 need a passport system so they can’t travel and put people at risk.

Casdon

With the millions of people who need and want to be vaccinated, it’s unrealistic to expect that a choice will be offered, other than for very specific medical reasons. If you don’t have the vaccination when it’s offered to you it’s unlikely that you will get an offer again until the end of the vaccination programme - which is as it should be. It’s up to each of us to weigh up the options, but be prepared to wait for at least six months for a second chance if you decline the first offer.

Personally, I think they should wait longer than that. There are plenty of under 50s who would like the jab, but realistically won't get it for years. They should have first refusal on any extra doses available.

Nobody will know for some time how much protection any of the vaccines give to third parties. The only people missing out are those who refuse to be vaccinated because the only certainty is that vaccination offers some protection to those who receive it. Indications are that take-up is high enough to reduce hospitalisations, which is a good thing for individuals and the management of public health resources.

Quite honestly, if they make that decision and subsequently suffer any consequences, I won't be shedding too many tears. In the UK, we are so lucky to have the NHS, but IMO people have a responsibility to take care of their own health and being offered a vaccination for free is part of that.

Don't be annoyed Sparkling. They won't affect whether you are infected.

growstuff

Don't be annoyed Sparkling. They won't affect whether you are infected.

True, growstuff but we’re not just thinking about ourselves are we?
Getting the economy up and running, getting the health service back on its feet and reinstating elective procedures, getting education back to normal - all these will be contingent on getting this virus under control and then, if possible eliminating it so that the world does not grind to a halt the way it has done in 2020.

What has happened with regard to the care home residents and staff who were refusing to consent to the vaccine?

MawBe

growstuff

Don't be annoyed Sparkling. They won't affect whether you are infected.

True, growstuff but we’re not just thinking about ourselves are we?
Getting the economy up and running, getting the health service back on its feet and reinstating elective procedures, getting education back to normal - all these will be contingent on getting this virus under control and then, if possible eliminating it so that the world does not grind to a halt the way it has done in 2020.

I couldn't agree more with your general principle.

However, (and I'm sorry to repeat myself) I have serious reservations about whether vaccines will achieve the hoped for outcomes. All we do know with relative certainty is that vaccines will offer people some (not 100%) protection from developing serious symptoms. If they offer more, it will be great, but they're not the magic wand people seem to expect.

There are various estimates about how many people are in the group most severely affected. It's probably somewhere between 12 and 20 million and the priority must be to give them protection with a vaccine. The remainder will have to be infected at some stage because there won't be enough doses for them and it would take months to vaccinate them all - not forgetting that the people in the rest of the world. It can never be guaranteed that people won't be infectious and, sadly, some people will still die.

The only way to achieve what you want is to suppress transmission and the only way to do that is by behavioural change (hands, face, space, etc).

If a minority of people choose not to be vaccinated, it doesn't really make much difference to the general plan. They are the ones losing out because they're failing to protect themselves. The ones who are dangers to the rest of us are the ones who persist in breathing their potentially infected germs all over other people.

MissAdventure

What has happened with regard to the care home residents and staff who were refusing to consent to the vaccine?

I don't know. It's certainly not what I've been reading at local level. Family members are angry that their relatives in care homes haven't been offered vaccination, despite the promises.

Must agree strongly with those posters who feel that refusers should automatically go to the back of the queue! There was a much respected doctor on morning TV who told of a patient who said she wouldn’t have the vaccine because she “didn’t know what was in it” - despite the fact that she obviously had a face full of botox! Whole new meaning to ridiculous!