24/7 Vaccination Centres

[PowerslidePanda]

Even though Boris has said this is going ahead, Matt Hancock said that there's not a clamour for it and "if both the person doing the vaccination and the person being vaccinated would both prefer for that to happen in the middle of the day, rather than the middle of the night, then that's probably when we should do it"

Once again, Matt Hancock is spectacularly missing the point here! Of course priority group 1 and 2 would prefer an appointment during the day - there's little incentive for them to accept an anti-social appointment, knowing that they'll be vaccinated in a couple of weeks regardless. If the late night slots were opened up to groups 3, 4 and 5, there would be no trouble filling them. But the government won't do that - they'll keep to their strict priority order and then do away with the 24/7 centres because there wasn't enough demand...

But if they offer all of the currently available vaccine to groups 3,4,5 at night* then the currently available vaccines may run out before those in groups 1 and 2 can get it during the day. Priority order is there for a reason, and we don’t currently have an infinite supply of vaccine (or, perhaps most crucially, vaccinators which is what we really need to be sorting out)

*I’m not convinced by your assertion that those in groups 3,4 and 5 will all be happy to attend 2am appointments, these are still older people. Group 2, however, many work night shifts anyway!

If we don't have enough supply or vaccinators to be operating 24/7 centres alongside GPs then why bother with 24/7 centres in the first place?

Yes, 3, 4 and 5 are still older people, but will be more incentivised because it would allow them to get the vaccine sooner than they otherwise would. But if they're not - extend it to group 6, 7, whatever it takes to fill the space.

My point is, we need to be vaccinating as many people as possible as quickly as possible. If group 1 and 2 would rather wait a couple of weeks than accept an antisocial appointment then that's fine - but vaccinating the rest of the population shouldn't be on hold because of it.

I'm not sure you're understanding how prioritisation works / its purpose or supply constraints.

@Mackerelpizza

I'm not sure you're understanding how prioritisation works / its purpose or supply constraints.

Please do enlighten me then.

I've not seen anything in what MH has said that suggests that 24/7 centres will be hampered by supply - only by the lack of demand for it.

I'm also not suggesting that lower priority groups should have the opportunity before the higher priority groups. But if the higher groups don't want to take that opportunity, why should it be wasted?

It seems the government is saying that because they're consistently avoiding answering any specific questions about how many doses of each vaccine there are in the country right now, ready to go, and when they are expecting more to arrive.

They have been saying vaccine supply is the rate limiting factor though, rather than say lack of staff/volunteers or lack of suitable venues. 24/7 wouldn't help in that case.

GP practices who have already got through their priority lists, are not getting any further vaccine until other areas have caught up, and that is without 24/7.

As for demand, there are already many no-shows, even during the day, and if you look at general GP and Hospital appointments, 1,000's are missed every day. I actually don't think there IS a demand for 24/7, not enough to staff up a centre anyway.

Additionally, a very interesting note from Chris Smith, a virologist this morning. Due to circadian rhythms, the body is less primed for medications and vaccinations during the night. There is apparently good immunology evidence, for not having an high immune response at night. Interesting stuff.