In what order do you think we should vaccinate?

[giantangryrooster]

Or rather who do you think should get the vaccine first?

My country is about to announce a vaccination plan and I wondered what I would choose. Some suggestions as I see it:

The elderly (oldest) first, then going down the age groups, as they are the most vulnerable.

Or

Hospital staff and carers in nursing homes first, to prevent spread to the vulnerable.

Or

The seriously ill first, given they (hopefully) have more years to live than the elderly and is (presumably) in more contact with health-care staff.

Or

?

What do you think and do you have any better suggestions?

It very much depends on how big the first run is and how long it is between runs.

MrsTerryPratchett
We are told 100.000 doses for a population of just under 6 mill. people, next batch weeks after that - 'they' have announced.

My initial reaction was that it would make more sense to vaccinate hospital and care home staff first to ring fence the vulnerable. But it is apparently not yet clear whether vaccinated persons can still transmit the virus. It seems that all we know is that vaccinated persons do not get seriously ill themselves. So on that basis vaccinating health workers would not necessarily shield those they care for. Therefore it seems that they should vaccinate the most vulnerable first.

Making the almost certainly incorrect assumptions that the vaccine works the same for all, can be distributed to all (I don’t think Pfizer is actually practical in community but let’s ignore that) and that the gap between groups is big enough to be worth worrying about (if we can do the whole population by Easter I’d just go regionally, Tier 3 first):

Care home staff and nhs workers
Care home residents
Clinically extremely vulnerable (shielded) and their household
Then downwards by age, oldest first, until you hit working age
Working age clinically vulnerable people and their household
Working age people in high risk jobs (meat processing, bus drivers, school staff)
Everyone else who wants it, oldest first

Hospital transmission is significant so clearly all hospital based and care home based staff (including cleaners and maintenance staff) need to be vaccinated first. I would say also probably ambulance, dental and midwifery due to cross over with hospital settings and vulnerable patients.

I would definitely favour prioritising based on vulnerability over age.

Vaccinate the most vulnerable first. Those advised to shield should be first, then age related downwards.

Care staff - community and care home, medical staff too should be included in there - but as a PP said, we don't know yet if the vaccine stops transmission, so go with the most vulnerable first.

All staff working with patients/residents/vulnerable people-plus any hospital patients and care home residents.

Anyone vulnerable regardless of age.

Teachers

Key workers

Everyone else

At the moment I'll just be happy if they don't make it available privately. I don't want to see celebrities and flaming youtubers prattling on about their vaccine while people in real need haven't had it.

It should be clear by now what the death rates are for each group - do it by that, going down.

In UK they said that age is the biggest risk factor even over underlying conditions so that is why they are doing it the way they have outlined

@PicsInRed

Hospital transmission is significant so clearly all hospital based and care home based staff (including cleaners and maintenance staff) need to be vaccinated first. I would say also probably ambulance, dental and midwifery due to cross over with hospital settings and vulnerable patients.

Definitely, all our local hospitals have wards closed due to Covid outbreaks. Most likely it is the patients who have brought it in (but tested negatively at first, so were admitted to hospital, then tested positive later). But if the staff get infected, they all have to self-isolate for 14 days, or longer if they get ill. That knocks out a large proportion of the NHS workforce. To keep the NHS going for everyone, the staff need to be vaccinated. Plus of course, to prevent NHS staff transmitting the virus to vulnerable patients.

At the moment I'll just be happy if they don't make it available privately

I would like our government to be the last to get the vaccine just to keep things going with political pressure. As is, i expect they will be the first, but not publicly talked about .

As above, NHS and care staff, but at the same time as the over 70's preferably - I think the UK has purchased enough vaccines to cover that easily initially. Obviously someone has to be clever with logistics, but the NHS is staffed by people trained in giving injections, so that should not be a problem!

It makes sense to prioritise NHS (clinical) staff as staff shortages will directly impact on healthcare. There was a documentary on BBC the other week about covid and hospitals and each member of staff having to self-isolate had a huge knock on effect on urgent cancer treatments etc.

After that, obviously starting from the elderly first makes sense.

Plus to speed things up, drive-though and open-air vaccinations (plus it's is safer than being inside)

@transcriptionerror

In UK they said that age is the biggest risk factor even over underlying conditions so that is why they are doing it the way they have outlined

And are we sure that isn't simply because the prevalence of underlying conditions increases with age?

The death rates amongst the CEV group are relatively low because they have been staying in and staying away from people.

Priority 6 seems low to me; many are of working age and cannot totally isolate due to having school aged children for example.

Mine would be:

1. Frontline NHS staff, paramedics care home workers and residents, home carers and people receiving home care.l (which would account for a good proportion of the very elderly)

2. teachers and school staff, social workers, police officers, prison officers and other professions that need to have physical contact with others.

3. Other ECV people and over 70s.

4. Any other key worker.

5. Everyone else in descending age order.

I’m in my early eighties

PM and cabinet, proof of the pudding and all that.

Those seriously ill whatever age.

All health professionals, starting with those who do the face to face stuff.

Teachers and others who are required to face the public, shop workers, priority to those serving food, then roles such as fire staff, police, and so on.

Then the elderly who don’t have serious health conditions.

After that it becomes difficult to give priority, so perhaps working through the age levels.

NHS staff first so we have healthcare
Care home workers
Teachers
CEV in work
College and uni students
CEV not in work
Then by age

I believe it should be available privately so people can choose to have it and travel etc will likely require it, the more vaccinated the better.

No body should be vaccinated until
it's met All regulatory standards.

Thanks for answering . Our plan has been published, but so vague that it's hard to know. They say we will start with a mixture of the elderly, vulnerable and care givers, no specifics 🤷‍♀️.

I actually agree strongly with an age-based approach. Healthy under-fifties really aren't the priority, whatever they work at. The only exception to this should be those working directly with the genuinely vulnerable ie care home workers. As a healthy forty year old I'm absolutely fine with being at the back the queue, and would still be 100% fine with it even if I worked in a more public-facing role.

Actually I'd ideally like a global approach, where vulnerable demographies and HCPs were prioritised worldwide. Its depressing to think that healthy western 30-somethings will quite possibly be vaccinated ahead of even HCPs in very deprived countries. And I don't care what those healthy young westerners work at, I really don't

Definitely should go by how clinically vulnerable you are, DGD has CF and in her early twenties. With all the recent developments in CF drugs she could expect to live into her fifties and even longer as research progresses. But no she is in the fourth priority group..... go figure !!

Pub managers and staff definitely need to be high priority. We need to get those boozers back open ASAP.