“Left high and dry”

[Keeva2017]

Totally prepared to be told I’m an unreasonable bugger. This has made me angry - more than it should. Clearly I’m already hangry from my New Years diet!

But here’s the question. AIBU for being really annoyed at a lady on the news moaning she was left high and dry by the fact her 2nd vaccination dose (high five to the people who hate the word jab) was postponed so that someone else can have their first dose?

Is this not utterly self centred?

Hit me. I can take it.

Well yes I'd say yabu, people are expecting the government to manage this correctly and yet again they have failed. She was expecting her 2nd vaccination and now is only partially protected having to wait up to 12 weeks. I would feel the same as her

I agree, she’s not got what she expected it she has got the first dose and thus is in a better position than she was. Also, tiers etc still apply to those who are vaccinated so it’s not like she could jet off to Majorca, for instance, anyway.

She has been promised something to give her 95% immunity.
She has now been told that for another 2 months+ she won't get that and will be left with a much lower % immunity.

She is obviously at risk to have already had the first dose.

I can see how she would feel disappointed.

My DF has had one dose and is due the next one next week. We aren't sure what is happening with it.

@Allispretty taken on board.

But wasn’t aiming for an “our government is useless” thread. More about surely if we are lucky to been given some immunity, it’s less about us getting as much as we can as individuals and wanting as many people to be safer as a quickly as possible.

Loss aversion: as humans we are more aggrieved to have something and then lose it than if we'd never had the thing in the first place.

For people vulnerable enough to have had the 1st dose already they are unlikely to be able to adapt their behaviour on the basis of that alone and so will feel as though they've been cheated of the extra weeks or months they will have to shield.

YABU
Pfizer came up with a recommendation, supported by clinical studies... etc
MHRA approved the vaccine based on these recommendations

Now our useless government decides they know better! 😡😡😡
I would f*ing furious!

not quite was you asked but my elderly grandma has been pretty much housebound and isolated during this whole pandemic due to being in sheltered accommodation. The communal areas have been closed since March, they are not allowed to gossip and stop in the corridors, we are not allowed to enter other than to drop shopping and she has been totally miserable.
It might sound silly but having her first injection was a truly happy day in her life. She was over the moon and welled up when I told her I was taking her for it, finally seeing an end in sight. She now won't receive the 2nd for at least 12 weeks and has had that appointment cancelled. It might be trivial in the grand scheme of things, but it has broken her heart and really affected her already failing mental health. When people are housebound like this, something so small as changing or cancelling an appointment can really affect them - they have nothing else to focus on.

Yes it is totally self centred but she is probably disappointed and had really been looking forward to feeling safe from a full vaccination course. I would hope once she thinks about things she will realise that her having an extra 4% protection a few weeks sooner isn’t worth somebody else dying.

@Thisendsnow I suppose I’m coming from the same place as you but headed in the direction of shes much more likely to survive so that she can do those things again. There are still millions of vulnerable people who are now faced with a faster spreading strain.

Doesn’t her neighbour deserve a better chance at living to see the end of this as she does?

Hypotheticals aside my heart genuinely does go out to her.

@EagleFlight yes that’s it for me if someone said to me you can have your extra bit of protection or someone else can have a big portion of protection instead?

I can’t imagine being THAT selfish that wouldn’t want to potentially help save someone else.

I had the first dose, I signed up to it saying I would receive the second dose between 21 and 28 days later, based on the evidence of the trial. Now being told have to wait 12 weeks, which is not based on any evidence. I’m absolutely furious and so are my colleagues who have also had it. This isn’t what we consented to.

[quote Keeva2017]@EagleFlight yes that’s it for me if someone said to me you can have your extra bit of protection or someone else can have a big portion of protection instead?

I can’t imagine being THAT selfish that wouldn’t want to potentially help save someone else.[/quote]
Surely you’d like a fully staffed NHS if you needed care? That’s not going to happen if we don’t get the max immunity

Bearing in mind the emphasis that up until a few days ago was being placed on the importance of people receiving both doses before they would be protected and able to consider modifying their behaviour, I can understand why someone would be frightened and frustrated to now be told they aren't getting the planned second dose.

Suggesting that this woman is effectively calling for somebody to die so she can have the complete course of the vaccination is nasty and clearly untrue.

Yanbu it's completely self centred. Two people vaccinated 90% is better than 1 person vaccinated to 95%

How anyone can't see that or is that selfish is beyond me

@FelicityBob yes I do but I also want fully staffed schools and the police. Alongside our Most vulnerable members of society, my POV is, and I’m not claiming it to be an educated one, is that more people that have some immunity, the better?

@Lemonpiano I don’t think I said that she was “calling for someone to die” more the she has the mind set of “im alright jack pull the ladder up/ not really thinking about the bigger picture”

To be clear I’m not saying she is a wannabe murderer. Just a tad small selfish. No nastiness please, that’s no way to start the new year.

No she’s definitely not selfish. I think you need to remember OP that this is medical. Would you be happy to receive 3/4 bottle of antibiotics? Because the pharmacist ran out.. ridiculous.

You wouldn’t. Also it may well be pointless just having the first dose of vaccine.

YANBU, she's being very selfish. I won't get the vaccine for ages and have accepted it.

This delay in the second vaccination seems to have been agreed among a lot of scientists as being a good thing in order to protect more people. But I did see one dissenting voice from a scientist in something I read yesterday. His idea was that the people who are getting it first because they are most at risk of dying if they catch the virus, will if they do not get a timely second dose as originally planned, be less protected and more likely to end up in hospital and die. His view was that this was not a justifiable outcome just in order to protect larger numbers of younger, healthier people from having an illness that for most would make them feel unwell at home for a week or so.

How can she be selfish for wanting a vaccine to be delivered according to the schedule set by the manufacturer?

Unless Pfizer have released an amendment in the last few hours? The drug wasn’t signed off on the basis of two doses 12 weeks apart, it was designed to be given no more than 28 days apart.

I don’t think she’s selfish, how do we know what effects it has on long term immunity to deliver doses that far apart?

@MythsandSparkles I agree.

@MythsandSparkles very true.

Hands up my knowledge comes from what I have read on the BBC news app. And we all know what they say about people who believe everything the read....

Tbh I think they should honour those who had second appointments and can understand why those affected may feel let down. End Feb/March seems a long way away. But yes, her reaction is ott as she is no worse off and perhaps even has an advantage healthwise than those who have yet to get theirs in the meantime.

There is no proof they will work if left longer than the original 3 weeks apart, so I can understand her annoyance. What's the point of giving two people doses that won't work as opposed to giving one person two doses that will work.

Surely you’d like a fully staffed NHS if you needed care? That’s not going to happen if we don’t get the max immunity

It’ll happen infinitely quicker if all the staff have 90% immunity rather than 50% having 95% and 50% having 0%! Two doses of MMR only gives 88% protection to mumps, yet that level keeps the vast majority of our population safe.