Why can't people vaccinate themselves?

[DemolitionBarbie]

There's probably a very good reason I don't know about.

I had to inject myself twice daily after giving birth a while ago. It wasn't that hard. Why can't people inject themselves with the vaccine, if it would speed things up? Is there a health reason, or does it need to be injected a certain way, or is there less capacity to make self-injection pen things?

Is it because they can't be trusted to actually do it? Or because the vaccine has to be stored a certain way and official paperwork with vaccine codes on etc has to be retained by the powers that be?

I would quite happily do myself and anyone else who would like me to do theirs.

I would imagine storage has a lot to do with it, it would be impossible with the Pfizer vaccine.

Not that there's any way I could vaccinate myself, I'm struggling with the thought of a professional doing it!

You may have an allergic reaction to the vaccine.

Difficult to store the vaccine - could cause a lot of it to be wasted

New vaccine - may take a bad reaction

Not everyone would want to or be capable of this

Delivery or pick up of the vaccine poses risks.

People can be unreliable and forget

I think the logistics of sending out single doses and making sure the right people got them would be much harder than having large, professionally run hubs.

I expect some people would sell their dose on eBay for a lot of £££.

Because you might need to provide proof of vaccination.

It’s not the same as self administering a sub cut injection. It would be v hard to identify your own deltoid muscle and inject yourself properly. Plus the obvious need for storage/cold chain checks/dose check. Pfizer is reconstituted in a multi dose vial. For a whole host of reasons it would just be impractical and unsafe.

How would they know you haven’t given it to somebody else? How would they distribute them in a way that would be quicker and more efficient than vaccination centres?

Also you have to be observed for 15 mins after and in reach of medical aid in case of a reaction.

I’ve read that it has to be injected intramuscularly and the type of things people inject at home are subcutaneous.

Where I live people do vaccinate themselves against flu but this is a bit different - for all the reasons given above.

Why would it have to be deltoid @Donttrainonmyparade? ,I was a mental health nurse and have given countless IM injections ,but mainly at the top of the buttock , upper outer quadrant etc ,and occasionally mid thigh .

Pharmacist here. I agree with PP. Anything which people inject at home are subcutaneous injections (insulins, epipens, blood thinning meds etc). The vaccine is intramuscular so very hard (if not impossible for most people) to give yourself.

And obviously the risk of adverse reactions.

Having said that I wouldn't want to administer it to myself!

Yes it can't work for many reasons, anaphylaxis, storage, people generally being a bit thick, but mostly because getting single use syringes sent out to everyone is a paperwork nightmare. Also, where would the used sharps be discarded??

Also, the Pfizer vaccine definitely comes in vials, not sure about the oxford/astrazenica one!

The risk of adverse reaction, the proper recording of vaccination for medical records, subcutaneous injection, the reasons are numerous.

Because it goes into the muscle rather than the fat, which is harder to do properly. I inject myself twice a month (Crohn’s meds) but wouldn’t trust myself to do a different type of injection.

A few reasons. Storage, responsibility (how do you know they’ll inject themselves and not waste it or even worse give it to their dog), if you have anaphylaxis you can’t then inject yourself with adrenaline, lots of wasted adrenaline because you would have to give everyone a vial, a lot of people would find it mentally hard to inject themselves, how do you keep a record? Some people have difficulty using eye drops, injecting yourself intramuscularly is harder than that. The only way to get round it was to have hubs where people inject themselves under supervision but you still have a lot of the same problems and would probably need a similar amount of clinical staff. I’m sure there’s many more reasons.

It’s not the same time of injection as the ones you do for, e.g., heparin, when confined to bed. So more risk of getting bubble of air in syringe which could be dangerous.

Medical reasons aside, I think it would damage confidence in the vaccine and reduce take-up. They've been very careful with messaging to ensure confidence is built and protected. Not worth the risk to vaccine confidence/take-up even if it were safe and practicable.

There is no way in hell I would trust the general public to be unsupervised in charge of even the smallest dose of the vaccine. I mean look how they’ve handled restrictions?

Some people would probably sell their vaccine if they could ! It's a good idea though. I would happily vaccinate my family.

Ha, I thought there must be a reason and there are several!

I was picturing some kind of field with a huge big brother-style cinema screen directing people how to do it, so you'd do it in a socially distant mass, with nurses on hand and no need to transport the vaccine.

Hadn't registered the subcutaneous/intramuscular thing! Fair enough.

Let's start with the fact that vials are multiple dose and go from there.

Even if the vaccine was lovely and stable and didn't care about temperature or being transported by the time you've got someone to make up all the doses into separate syringes, taken the needle off, put a sterile cap on the syringe, packed it into a box with a clean needle, gone to your house, given you the info and got you to sign consent, taught you how to give an IM injection and how to deal with any anaphylaxis it might, just might, be more efficient to bring the person to the vaccine.