Vaccine Rollout being prepared to start in December

[RedToothBrush]

First the cavets.

Its 50:50 whether it will indeed be ready.

Priority given to over 85s and front line workers first.

www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/breaking-news/covid-vaccine-des-set-to-be-announced-imminently-for-december-start/
Exclusive: Covid vaccine DES set to be announced imminently for December start

Exclusive A new DES is set to be announced imminently for practices and PCNs to start administering a Covid vaccine from the beginning of December, Pulse understands.

Practices and PCNs will be asked to prepare to give the vaccine to over 85s and front line workers from the start of December, numerous sources have confirmed to Pulse.

There are currently two vaccines that are being prepared, with one requiring two shots and needing to be kept at minus 70 degrees.

Alongside GPs and PCNs, there will be teams delivering it to care homes, and at-scale delivery centres.

And

It remains unclear exactly which vaccines will be administered, but Pfizer’s vaccine in development has to be kept at minus 70 degrees, while the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine was shown to be more effective when administered in two doses.

I think (but am not ascientist)that the vaccine was based or similar ingredients (for want of a better word) to a sars vaccine that had already been worked on so in that respect certain safety aspects had already been confirmed.
Also slot of the stages if producing vaccine were happening concurrently and there was less waiting time for various stages to be approved.
This is all very simplistic as I have no medical or science background so this is just how I've understood it. Hopefully someone more intelligent can come along and confirm or deny I have understood it correctly!
Also

This was mentioned the other week in this forum and the poster gotlaughed at and poopooed, people says as if there would be a vaccine so soon.

Wonder where they are all now??

The same place as all the people who said Covid would never come over the the UK in February

BBC website is quoting the chief exec of NHS England saying a vaccine being rolled out before Christmas is not likely...

^
"Access to a vaccine before Christmas is "not a central assumption" Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, told a press conference.

Sir Simon said: "The central expectation is the start of next year is when vaccines will become available.

"Obviously we are planning on the off-chance that at least some vaccine is available before Christmas but that is not a central assumption.""^

-80 freezers are a standard bit of science laboratory kit. GPs won’t have them but they’re not unusual things at universitys or large hospitals.

Fingers and toes crossed this all comes to pass.

I hope it’s like the vaccine equivalent of Andy Peters being in the CD printing factory ready to start the production line of the winners CD’s on pop idol final night.

Nurses and doctors and vets poised with needle in hand with patient in front of them waiting for the nod that all is safe and good.

A colleague of mine in India was saying that their government might call a national holiday to get people vaccinated.

I hope it’s like the vaccine equivalent of Andy Peters being in the CD printing factory ready to start the production line of the winners CD’s on pop idol final night.

I love it. I also love the idea of ‘vaccine day’

‘A colleague of mine in India was saying that their government might call a national holiday to get people vaccinated.‘

How would that work?! You can’t do everyone on the same day!

Kate Bingham was talking to the Science Committee today. Apparently, and unsurprisingly, we don’t in fact have the 30m doses of the Oxford vaccine we were meant to have in Sept. We might have 4m by the end of the year, and 10m of Pfizer. This is not going to be done quickly, I think anything by Christmas will be purely symbolic.

Logistical challenges

Oh no nimberblock that’s a bit disappointing

@Numberblock7

Kate Bingham was talking to the Science Committee today. Apparently, and unsurprisingly, we don’t in fact have the 30m doses of the Oxford vaccine we were meant to have in Sept. We might have 4m by the end of the year, and 10m of Pfizer. This is not going to be done quickly, I think anything by Christmas will be purely symbolic.

If it's early it's likely to only be an emergency licence for limited high risk people- but anything could make a difference. If a vaccine is shown to be effective, it will mean that at least we can have a plan and be able to look forward.

There are 3.2 million over 80s in the UK including 1.6 million over 80s. Iirc the average age for death from COVID-19 in this country is 82.
Thus if the vaccine turns out to be reasonably effective it wouldn’t take many million vaccines to have a noticeable impact on the number of deaths.
At least with COVID we can target people fairly well- some diseases are far more indiscriminate.

My expectation has always been that any pre Christmas roll out would be mainly symbolic but even with the small number of doses available it could help.

1.6 million over 85s.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

‘A colleague of mine in India was saying that their government might call a national holiday to get people vaccinated.‘

How would that work?! You can’t do everyone on the same day!

It hasn't been done before, no, but I think it could be if we had the doses (which it sounds like we don't yet). Off the top of my head, to do this in one day you would need

• location (could use the same places as polling: churches, schools)
• comms (councils / NHS / electoral register) to let people know where to go when
• qualified staff to dispense - think this could be challenging but could be worked through.

Obvs they wouldn't actually need to do it in a day but vaccine week would be bloody brilliant.

Assuming both vaccines work, 14 million doses by end of year is actually more than I would have expected. Certainly enough for us to be able to make a start vaccinating people who are at maximum risk (which will in turn start to reduce the burden on the NHS).

I don't think we can overestimate the boost the commencement of a vaccine programme would give everyone in terms of morale and a feeling of there being light at the end of the tunnel.

Will vaccinating the over 80s ease pressure on the NHS by much? What's the average age of those being hospitalisations for Covid? Ie not people in hospital who also happen to test positive.

I don't think we can overestimate the boost the commencement of a vaccine programme would give everyone in terms of morale and a feeling of there being light at the end of the tunnel.

Yes, this

Will vaccinating the over 80s ease pressure on the NHS by much?

I think vaccinating the most exposed NHS workers would have the biggest impact

What's the average age of those being hospitalisations for Covid? Ie not people in hospital who also happen to test positive.
I think vaccinating the most exposed NHS workers would have the biggest impact

i don't know how reliable this statistic is but the the DT DT are reporting that huge numbers of people in hospital with covid caught it there.

The over 80s are very likely to need hospital admission so the two would seem to be inextrcably linked.

Assuming both vaccines work, 14 million doses by end of year is actually more than I would have expected. Certainly enough for us to be able to make a start vaccinating people who are at maximum risk (which will in turn start to reduce the burden on the NHS)

I guess it depends if having 14m vaccines and being able to administer that many are the same thing?....and by the end of the year could mean 30th December...
....but it still feels a tiny bit hopeful. 14m is over 20% of the population which surely would make a difference? I'm sure there wasnt ever a plan to vaccinate everyone anyway? (I thought the vaccination plan had been HCPs, the elderly and most vulnerable....and possibly key workers?)

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel @Extrapepperoni I was a bit with my colleague in India but to be fair the Indian government will call a none working day at very little notice for general elections (causes a nightmare at work)

Vaccine week sounds like the ticket for me, surely if you use the 80/20 rule vaccinating 20% of the population would make the biggest difference.

I’m an eternal optimist!