When will vaccines be available privately do you think?

[Kinsters]

So the plan in the UK is for everyone who wants a vaccine to have one made available by September I think. After that do you think that vaccines will be available privately in the UK? Or will the UK start diverting their supply to middle/low income countries? Or cancel orders? I'm pretty sure the UK has over-ordered vaccines...

I don't live in the UK and don't think I will be eligible for vaccination in my country for at least a year if not longer as we aren't even expecting vaccinations to start until March. I'm really hoping for spending Christmas 2021 in the UK with my family though and it'd be amazing if the vaccine was available privately by then.

Someone just reminded me that soon we'll probably need the vaccine to be able to travel which is a good point and makes my idea a lot less feasable 😩

I think its unlikely that it will be anytime soon. In the UK people are getting the vaccine for free on the NHS when it becomes available for their risk group. Once its open for all, then anyone can get it for free so why would you pay? Why would private health care bother putting something easily available on the NHS on their systems?
I also think that its going to be a while before there is vaccine available for the private companies. Even the US (bastion of private healthcare) accessibility isn't based on health insurance, its based on risk (and if you happen to be in an organised state) or if you know people or can justify yourself as important (like a politician). Rich people aren't currently getting instant private access based on money alone.
65 year old Bill Gates only just got his.

We have been informed it won't be available privately as the NHS need the stock.

2022

I wonder what countries like Canada and the UK will do with their massive vaccine oversupply then? Hopefully they will divert it to low and middle income countries so we can have a hope at vaccination as well. In most parts of the world not even doctors have been vaccinated.

If the vaccine is needed annually, which it might well be, then there's no oversupply, just contracts for supply which can be used next winter

Despite all the talk of a Canadian oversupply we certainly don’t have one. Currently only old stock and nothing for a few weeks while the re-tooling happens.
Latest news is we’ve ordered based on 6 doses per vial but often only get 5 doses per vial so might be 30,000 short...
Some has been given to the WHO program already.
Some companies won’t make it through to production so those won’t be available either.

I dont think the travel vaccine rule will happen. It doesn't stop you contracting or passing it on and plenty of people will not be able to have this vaccine either because they are pregnant or planning children, or because of allergies.

@jimmyhill

If the vaccine is needed annually, which it might well be, then there's no oversupply, just contracts for supply which can be used next winter

Vaccines aren’t usually stored for next year. They’re modified to account for mutations and made hee each year. I get the flu vaccine early each year and it’s always the new one.

Hang on I just realised you mean contracts for next year not saving the vaccine till next year (as I’ve been correcting family members about recently). Apologies!

LemonSwan I'm planning children and don't see why that stops me getting the vaccine?

I guess that makes sense if you need annual vaccines. It just feels so hopeless here at the moment. Lockdown and no vaccines on the horizon 😩 I think I'll feel very jealous when my friends in the UK start getting their vaccines.

LemonSwan if it's true that people who've been vaccinated still spread the virus then I don't think where I live will be opening borders anytime soon. Our health system is already at breaking point and that's with borders shut.

I think they said it wouldn’t be available privately. It probably will be at some point, like the flu jab, but not until the pandemic is over because why would it be when it’s free to everyone on the NHS? Also something I hadn’t thought of before but it would be pretty disastrous for us if we had loads of people flying in to get the vaccine privately and bringing potential worse strains from al areas of the world.

I would hope that if we have vaccine supply left over once we have done all adults this year we would divert some to the poorest countries, we have already given a lot of money to COVAX who should be supplying those too. But we don’t have enough supply to give to middle income countries too and presumably they can and should have ordered their own.

I think the problem for middle income countries is that they can order some but not enough to cover the whole population. Like where I live we have a good public health system but it is reliant on the fact that people who can afford private healthcare use private healthcare. No way could we afford public healthcare for everyone. It'll be the same with the vaccine in many countries I'm sure.

I wouldn't worry about people coming to the UK for the vaccine. People are coming to the UK from everywhere anyway (provided their own borders are open