People not getting the jab as hub out of area

[KevinTheBird]

I’ve just been on my local FB page this morning and can’t believe what I’ve read. An entire thread of people who have been invited for their COVID jab and are refusing to go because it’s an hour drive. People think this means it’s out of their local area and they aren’t allowed to go due to lockdown restrictions 🤦‍♀️.

Dozens of posts from people saying they’re not going to risk getting a £200 fine so are contacting the GP surgery to get it there instead. This is despite constant, begging messages from the surgery asking people not to call about vaccinations as people needing medical attention can’t get through.

That’s a staggering level of stupidity! Unless these are people who don’t want the vaccine and have found something convenient to blame it on... otherwise surely you’d just check the rules online?

Surely people aren't that stupid? One person maybe but wouldnt' everyone else say of course you can go.

I suspect it has more to do with trying to get pressure to get a more local vaccine centre. People were whining in my town that there wasn't a vaccination centre in the town (there was but on the outskirts - about 2 miles from the centre!). There will be one in the town centre from the middle of Feb which will be good for us as it will be in walking distance, but the fuss over it was ludicrous.

An hour is a long way. But not because of lockdown restrictions. Sigh,.

But travel for medical reasons has always been allowed. A friend of mine travelled from Devon to Liverpool three times during the first lockdown for essential surgeries.

Friends in the US, 84 and 82, had a 200 mile round trip to get theirs.

There is going to be a more local centre set up but it’s still about 15 miles away. Genuinely most of the complaints were people saying they wouldn’t go as they didn’t want to risk being stopped by the police and fined/ don’t like driving on a motorway/ it’s too short notice and they had planned to go to the garden centre on Tuesday so they need it rearranged.

I heard on R4 a while ago that people might be offered vaccination out of area initially but could choose to wait for one to become available nearby.

Absolutely loads of people are saying of course you can but the group is very OAP orientated and unless they personally know you then you tend to get dismissed as a troll. I’ve had a look on the page of my nearby town and there’s a similar discussion going on there too.

There’s also one posted who is insisting that if you just turn up and hang around at a particular site (the one he’s talking about is a test site, not a vaccination site so he’s got no chance) you’ll get given a vaccine if someone doesn’t turn up for their appointment.