To wonder if lack of covid boosters this Autumn is government cost cutting

The pharmacist who did my private one said that the private booster is the most up to date whereas the NHS one they were giving was about six months old. SO perhaps ask before you book your private booster to see which one they're using for private patients.

Nail on the head. My DH wears a mask in busy/enclosed places because he has incurable bone marrow cancer which will ultimately kill him and due to the lifelong chemotherapy he has to endure, is severely immuoncompromised. As a result of that, we have a very "small" life, no foreign holidays, barely go out anywhere enclosed in Winter, and I also wear a mask in Winter in enclosed places (and avoid anywhere that's too busy). That's not "inadequate" it's life preservation! Annoying that I couldn't get an NHS booster as they've removed the "lives with" and "caring for" eligibility for someone living in the same household as someone immunomcompromised, so I've had to pay privately. Well worth the £80 to try to help keep DH alive a bit longer!

I’m immunocompromised and I’ve had my Covid booster already. But members of my household aren’t eligible now, despite getting it last year. So they’ve booked a private booster. It’s a lot of money to have it done privately when you’re on a low income but in our case we decided it worth it and we’ll do without something else to fund it (like stopping our TV licence). Some people won’t be able to and it’s not fair. Being immunocompromised, disabled or ill isn’t easy on you or your family, health wise or financially.

Why for traveling? On a plane, where do you think the air you breath comes from?!

Currently have 2 relatives in hospital with COVID.
I want to pay to have the vaccination but only if it will protect against the 2 new variants, I need to find time to do the research

Because it isn’t actually as bad as they made out it was so they’re thinking of something else to control us with instead like digital ID! Let’s see if there are 1000s of more deaths from COVID this winter or something new instead! Don’t be so gullible!

I don’t understand why people are even testing for Covid anymore. Do we have flu tests?

Either you’re a little sick but can continue on. Need to stay home sick sick. Or you end up in hospital sick. Doesn’t really if it’s Covid or the flu.

Yeah, I wear a mask in crowded places as I have cancer. Nice to be seen as inadequate. Honestly some people just don't think🤦

Yep OP, of course it’s cost cutting and short sighted, especially given how stretched nhs is. Yes too to reducing the overall cost of covid (and other) infections, which are costing an absolute fortune.

If you want one you can book one and pay.

I am going to book in, but we are a family who love a vaccination!

So you had a heavy cold.

Yes, because you qualified to have it . However family member who has a heart condition , and has had a stroke due to it has not qualified because they are not immune suppressed or over 75 . Yet they were told to shield in the beginning and was eligible thus far .

@Hulabalu you have to be realistic, seeing as they are not even vaccinating pregnant women any more - the JVVI have crunched the numbers and determined that over 75’s and the immune suppressed still need it funded by the NHS….perhaps more energy could be put in to persuade older adults why they should accept the flu jab, uptake for that remains poor. You can always choose it privately if you can’t accept that the NHS has to make decisions based on finances combined with clinical evidence.

The vaccines don't reduce transmission much, only severity of disease hence why they're offered to those most vulnerable and most likely to be admitted to hospital or die.

For the majority of the population Covid won't get you admitted, or kill you. A mass vaccination programme is unnecessary according to the JCVI.

It's been a challenging October so far explaining to so many patients of mine why I can give them a flu jab but not a covid one...

I’ve heard a few people say they no longer qualify but i still got mine. I just booked on the government website as usual and the pharmacy asked how i qualified (I have an autoimmune condition that puts me at risk of serious illness), and I got my jab. It was just as easy as always.

I’ve had it twice in the last 3 years - both times caught on holiday and both times completely different but both bloody horrible. It wasn’t a “big deal” in that I didn’t die and wasn’t hospitalised but much worse than your usual virus.

10/10 wouldn’t recommend. I’m not about to start wearing masks in Tesco again, fuck that!, but I would for travelling I think.

And as for having an injection to ward off an illness that everyone gets regardless, that's another no.

No. You'd have to hold me down and wrangle a mask over my face nowadays. That's right up there with keeping two meters distance away from other people and uninviting people to Christmas dinner to save the NHS and other batshit things that I'll never do again.