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

[Hulabalu]

And if it is cost cutting , isn’t it a short sighted one? The more people get sick the more the cost to /,strain on NHS?

And wouldn’t it be sensible to “run a please be considerate and wear a mask if you have symptoms?” campaign . Not just for Covid but a cold / cough / sore throat ?

Crazy isn’t it??!

Oh I’d forgotten RFK and Prassad had changed the vaccine recommendation. It’s still wider than the U.K. one though. Might be interesting to see if private insurance companies continue to offer it for free. Medicare and Medicaid is screwed.

I wear a mask in crowded places as I regularly visit my frail 90 year old mum who could easily die if she caught Covid.

Another of your inadequate individuals.

Inadequate individuals unite!

How odd, there’s no guidance to suggest that is necessary. I’m not sure what makes a neurologist an expert on immunology.

💪💪💪

Ultimately for the vast majority of the population covid is no more than a heavy cold/flu type illness these days. It is only really dangerous for those with weaken immune systems. Therefore mass vaccination is no longer deemed necessary.

I receive it as I have a chronic respiratory condition and dd is on chemo to deliberately suppress her immune system so we have to protect her. However, my Uncle nd my brother. Both who have have recently recovered from cancer are not classed as needing it as their immune systems are classed as ok and they are not in the vulnerable category.

last year me & H both got covid (we tested)
I had managed to blag a free covid vaccination from our GP surgery, rather than it going to waste basically
He was sick as a dog
It barely registered with me

I am booked it at £95 shiny new pounds to have one tomorrow.

More and more healthcare is going to be at cost for the individual. So it will be up to you if you decide to keep a fund for additional healthcare or not.

Maybe s/he has seen a case (or more) where a neurological injury has been sustained in association with this and suggests not taking the chance. That said, husband and I had our flu and covid vaccines together a couple of weeks ago with no ill effects, aside from me having a very sore arm for several days.

It’s actually an unpredictable disease. Otherwise fit and healthy people can unexpectedly become very ill, leaving long term health problems. Disabling long covid can affect anyone, including children. My husband took two years to recover and it was then re-triggered by another dose of Covid. That one lasted about 10 months. Some people who became very ill with it in 2020 are still struggling with it.

This short article in BMJ talks of some of the issues. One issue raised was the lack of monitoring of covid in the population, yet when UKHSA was asked, they just gave what appears to be a stock response saying they did monitor - we don’t really have a clue do we, but neither it seems do the organisations who are meant to!

Each wave, a number of people have immune dysregulation from covid, which doesn’t resolve.

Saying we protect our most vulnerable is a bit of a cop out - it’s a decreasing number - not of who is vulnerable, but who we protect.

https://www.bmj.com/content/391/bmj.r2095

there seems to be inconsistency with who gets free covid vaccine. A colleague who lives elsewhere in country got it free as he has asthma. Yet my doctors say I’m not eligible even though I’m asthmatic . Perhaps different areas do different.

Was husband vaccinated? I hope he makes full recovery x

The new strain has not been a ‘heavy cold’ for anyone!!! Most people I know have been seriously ill.

Yes he was fully vaccinated and boostered over that period. He has recovered. Thank you. It’s possible it will be retriggered when his body fights other viruses, as that has already happened.

Let's face it, they should be offering the booster to those who were considered essential workers and worked through lockdown - all healthcare staff and those in education. Supermarket workers too. Anyone who comes into contact with lots of people and who would be vectors for transmission themselves.

I guess we were fine to use as needed during the lockdowns, but we're totally forgotten about now.....

I’ve had a text offering DD one. Some years we haven’t done it as the nearest place they did under 18s was 60 miles away, this time it’s the next town over.

Could it be an England/Wales/Scotland difference? If they are in England I think your colleague was just lucky.

The people that have really suffered with the symptoms this year - have you been previously vaccinated?

COVID is still about. I would love to have a jab

It isn't the GP surgery that does the work - they offload it to the pharmacies who got paid £9.50 to supply and give the vaccine for NHS eligible people which is the same as last year and the year before. The price of £16-20 for non NHS people is a reasonable price (cost of vaccine plus costs plus a bit of profit).
£100 for a COVID vaccine is Pfizer being money grabbing profiteering bastards - they have recouped the development costs. The British AZ vaccine cost the government about £5 per dose which just about covers their making costs.

Me and DH went for our flu and Covid this morning but DH only qualified for flu this year. He works frontline for the ambulance service and has got a lot of colleagues off with Covid at the moment. It’s also like the nurse who was giving the vaccines said, they don’t qualify for it either but the amount of people they were vaccinating just today exposed them to a lot potentially.

I got mine as I’m on immunosuppressants.

I understood that there are a number of diseases which are monitored via the sewage system, and Covid is one of them. It might be that they are sending vaccines to regions where there are more cases.

England. Yes I think just lucky .

I thought they’d stopped monitoring sewage in early 2022 for covid (England). Now I think it’s just testing some symptomatic people in hospital. It’s a bit crap really.