1.5 million people vaccinated already - brilliant!

[buttery81]

They’ve vaccinated 1.5 million people so far and the target is 13.9 million people (the top 4 groups in the attached graphic) by the middle of February, according to ITV. It’ll be a fantastic achievement if they can hit that target.

The government will be providing daily updates on the vaccine rollout progress from Monday 11th January.

It’s such a relief that they’ve got this vaccine and are rolling it out quickly across the country. Considering that it’s only 8th January today, I truly feel like 13.9 million by mid February is achievable.

Come on, let’s do this!

@RememberSelfCompassion

Shielding letters weren't given out for normal well controlled asthma. There was a strict criteria (I initally thought I met it with the inhalers I had but you needed hospital admissions or several sets of steroids over winter to qualify.) I'd say you don't have the whole story.

Steroids were given for a chest infection in December 2019, that must be the reason. I know many people who are much more vulnerable, it just didn't make sense to me.

If I remember rightly it had to be 4 courses of steroids over the previous winter (I may have misremembered this.) I have quite a few friends with asthma on steroid inhalers and we were all looking into it at the time last March. It had to be severe or uncontrolled asthma to meet the shielding definition and there was a set criteria. Either she hasn't told you in detail about her asthma or its for a different issue. (Or a random mistake!?).

It won't be perfectly fairly allocated in order- when we are talking about a rollout of millions of doses rapidly and different centres are running at different rates.

I think it may start to become more inequitable for a bit. People like me could rapidly respond to a text inviting me for a jab (within a minute!), but I know some elderly people who don't really 'do' mobiles and so will need to be phoned/written to and will then need to consult lift givers.

But we need to remember that one of the big aims isn't so much about protecting the individual as to getting hospital numbers down asap and that requires processes that are as efficient as possible (even if I feel guilty for getting it before more vulnerable neighbours).

@RememberSelfCompassion

If I remember rightly it had to be 4 courses of steroids over the previous winter (I may have misremembered this.) I have quite a few friends with asthma on steroid inhalers and we were all looking into it at the time last March. It had to be severe or uncontrolled asthma to meet the shielding definition and there was a set criteria. Either she hasn't told you in detail about her asthma or its for a different issue. (Or a random mistake!?).

I'm thinking error, have done from day one. Absolutely no way should she be on the list. My friends mum is asthmatic, undergoing chemo and over 70, she's not even on the list and is waiting for her first jab 🤷‍♂️.

I'll be there so fast when I get called!

I've missed this thread.

Does anyone want a hazard a guess on when blokes in their late 50s with high blood pressure will be called? My DH and my mum have had the vaccine, but my dad hasn't, and I worry about him getting covid, especially as his similarly aged friend died of it recently. He's very shaken up at it and as he's WFH is only going to the local shop really

Try the omnicalculator. You type in your details amd if you're on the cv list etc and it estimates according to current rate of vaccines.

@notevenat20

The Oxford vaccine we use is made in Oxford and then finished/packaged in Wales.

So what? The EU had a contract for a certain number of doses, not for doses from a certain plant. If AstraZeneca cannot produce the promised amount, the cuts should affect all countries, including the UK, proportionately. Now the UK is using the Pfizer vaccine produced in the EU and delivered as agreed, but keeping the vaccine it should deliver to the EU for itself. Ireland has already announced it will have to delay its vaccination of over 70 year olds. www.rte.ie/news/2021/0123/1191570-coronavirus-ireland So effectively, the UK will just vaccinate as many of its own people as possible at the cost of life in other countries. Great, really a strategy to be proud of!

@MarionoiraM
I think the vaccine supplies are allocated from the nearest production plant to avoid possible issues with transportation etc.

So India have manufactured and stockpiles something like 150 million doses of the Oxford when it was approved there.

It doesn't make sense to divert supplies from India to the EU for example because the vaccine can get damaged in transit and will take time to get there.

It's hard to be completely fair to every country, just as it's hard to be completely fair when giving the vaccine to the most vulnerable first,

Of course the aim should be to vaccinate the vulnerable first, but there are logistical challenges which mean that there are left over doses and so it's better to give them out to others to use up.

It's simpler to put supply chains in place and certain countries receive vaccines from certain factories, than it is to try to redirect vaccines around the world lorry by lorry. Especially as there is a major risk of theft of the vaccine given its rarity and value.

The EU haven't yet approved the Oxford vaccine, they don't meet to approve it until next week I think, and there's no guarantee they will approve it

There's also nothing to stop any EU country approving a different vaccine and putting in an order.

Hungary have approved and ordered the Russian one, and I think I read somewhere that Germany had placed orders outside the EU vaccine deal.

Ireland could independently approve and order the Oxford vaccine, which may well be delivered from the UK, as supplies are already being sent to Northern Ireland.

Whilst the EUcwide vaccine deal may have endured enough supply for the EU eventually, the roll out is complex and slow, which in a pandemic isn't the best option right now.

I think it benefits Europe rather if we can get our appalling case and death rate under control.

Now the UK is using the Pfizer vaccine produced in the EU and delivered as agreed, but keeping the vaccine it should deliver to the EU for itself

We will see a reduction in Pfizer over the next few weeks. We'll see the same amount in total but the supply will be irregular.

The total amount of Oxford vaccine ordered will be supplied but it won't meet the initial order.

If AstraZeneca cannot produce the promised amount, the cuts should affect all countries, including the UK, proportionately
Everyone? Should India give up some of it's own stockpile to meet the shortfall of the initial EU despatch?

The total amount of Oxford vaccine ordered will be supplied to the EU due to production problems at a vaccine factory in Belgium run by its partner Novasep it won't meet the initial order.

I also don't think the UK government has any say in when and how it gets any of the vaccines.

Astra Zeneca decide where they can manufacture and how many doses it can make etc. The UK Government has no control over that.

We are not hoarding the vaccine, we are receiving regular deliveries in line with the orders we placed and Astra zenaca's decisions regarding manufacture.

And as for Ireland, despite asking, they are still waiting for the EU to let them use the Oxford vaccine.

www.dublinlive.ie/news/health/covid19-vaccine-oxford-ireland-brexit-19672792

Or, even have it, in anticipation of approval.

My memory may be wrong on this but i vaguely remember legislation being passed in the uk that prevented the export of drugs on a critical list. I think it was last year it was passed at the start of the pandemic. At one point there was concern with China shutting down and the risk of mass illness elsewhere in the world, that we would have critical shortages of essential drugs because places in China and India etc would have plant shut downs and we are reliant on them for generic drugs and we don't produce a huge amount in the uk ourselves. And this was exacerbated by Brexit fears.

I believe we have ramped up our ability to produce certain drugs in the uk in the last year and we have capacity in the UK for oxford/astra zeneca.

I would have to look this up to check, but my suspicion would be that legally any vaccine produced in the uk, is almost certainly going to be on a restricted list and therefore prohibited from export.

This law and the mentally of the government probably do mean that uk citizens will be prioritised for some time.

However at the moment the uk is up shit creek with trade and perhaps the one thing we have that both the US and EU are desperate for is vaccine. And once we have vaccinated a critical number of people, i fully expect this to be used as a bargaining chip if the US and EU are still struggling.

I will try and see if i can find reference to this law. I did mention it on MN so its on here somewhere.

I can't see the EU jumping up to help us out if things were the other way round 🤨

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/933527/medicines_that_cannot_be_parallel_exported_from_the_UK.csv/preview
This is the list of banned for export.

I don't know what the medical name for any of the vaccines are (google is making me none the wise), so im not 100% sure if they are on the list but i dont think they are.

Which is interesting. To say the least.

The UK have, I think, committed to sharing its over supply to developing countries, but I'm not sure at what point that kicks in.
I'll have a look in the while, but I can't now because it is snowing and that is temporarily far more important.

And as for Ireland, despite asking, they are still waiting for the EU to let them use the Oxford vaccine.

www.dublinlive.ie/news/health/covid19-vaccine-oxford-ireland-brexit-19672792

How frustrating for them! Let’s hope for their sakes it’s approved soon.

@RedToothBrush

Oxford is "ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine"
Pfizer is "BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine"

Trip off the tongue, don't they?

Neither are on the list.

(Interestingly, the Hep B vaccine is. The only reason I can see for that being there would be if they were planning on introducing a large number of previously unvaccinated people to the NHS workforce, and needing to get them vaccinated against Hep B quickly. Perhaps a hint at a plan for how they might have staffed the Nightingales??)

@OhYouBadBadKitten

The UK have, I think, committed to sharing its over supply to developing countries, but I'm not sure at what point that kicks in. I'll have a look in the while, but I can't now because it is snowing and that is temporarily far more important.

That's my understanding. I believe Oxford is also being sold on a not for profit basis.

I absolutely support us distributing vaccine to the developing world. It's both ethically correct, and practicable as it reduces the risk of new variants emerging there.

I'm less convinced we have an ethical duty to support the EU, who were slow to order vaccines, slow to develop them, and have been slow to approve them. Part of the reason Oxford is available at all is because the UK government funded it to the tune of £65million; part of the reason that vaccines are available here ahead of the EU is because we committed to buying them early, before the results of the trials were known. This supported vaccines being manufactured 'at risk', prior to knowing if approval would be granted. Vaccines that the EU has refused to allow delivery of even at this late stage, when approval is just around the corner.

It's worth noting, also, that various EU nations have been highly critical of the UK's approval process, accusing our government of using the population as guinea pigs by approving Pfizer and Oxford so rapidly. It seems to me they can't both criticise us for that, and criticise us for being further ahead in the vaccine rollout.

Scrolling back to last Sunday, it looks like the total daily number of vaccinations reported was 298,087. The total number vaccinated was 3,857,266.

Can’t wait to see what it is today!

(Sorry about my previous post - I thought I was on one of the more argumentative discussions, not this upbeat sanctuary).

@buttery81 I agree - today's number should be really interesting. It's going to be the first time when we'll have some hint about whether last weekend's drop off in daily doses was genuine, or whether vaccine numbers follow the same cycle of weekend delays as the other covid figures.

I'm still blown away by how fast the figure is growing! Plus this week I have had lots of people tell me, "I had it today" or "My mum had it yesterday!". I know that's not factual evidence, but it feels like it's out in the community and being given in a way that simply wasn't the case a couple of weeks ago.