WHO urges Britain to pause covid jabs after treating the vulnerable

[Jay2020]

Link

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/30/who-urges-britain-to-pause-covid-jabs-after-treating-vulnerable

I am beyond broken if this means we can't get to any kind of normality.

I'm not sure what the fuss is about here; the WHO suggested pausing after the vulnerable are jabbed, so it's not that any particular age group would miss out - if they're vulnerable they'll get it just the same
I’m not vulnerable but I want my vaccination all the same. Lots of people who were not vulnerable have died. I don’t want to be one of them.

The entire adult population could never be vaccinated as some people will refuse it
Sorry but we need to ignore the refusers and just get on with our lives. If they catch Covid it’s their own fault. Give everyone a vaccine passport and don’t let the refusers into restaurants etc.

But why should we get back to 'normal life' and have our young and healthy people receiving the vaccine whilst the clinically extremely vulnerable are still dying in other countries?
Because that’s not my problem. The same as I stuff myself excessively with pizza and consider that famine in other countries isn’t my problem. I’m concerned about myself, my country, my quality of life.

@marbellamarc

Wow what a question. I'm definitely not qualified to answer that, I don't know.

@Perfect28 where the uk are now at vaccinating is not selfish , we have one of the highest death tolls in the world and need to roll out vaccine quickly , we are taking a gamble spreading doses so that we can get at least people to at least have one jab and some protection.
We are nowhere near fully vaccinating the vulnerable, your argument may or may not stand true in a couple months but not now .

older, fatter, more inactive populations are far more at risk.

I thought that's why the west has suffered badly. Traditionally poorer countries tend to be younger.

The number of healthy young(ish) people getting it badly is vanishingly small
This is not true in the UK currently. Maybe it is our new variant, but half of the people in critical care units in some areas are not in the at-risk groups and many are not even on any of the the priority lists.

Frankly I think some posters here would rather a 22-year-old serial killer from anywhere in Europe received the vaccine before a tubby white bloke in his 50s from Nuneaton.

@Perfect28 but you're advocating for it. I think I said on my first point that it's a nice idea but pretty impractical in the real world.
I personally think if you believe something is a good idea you need to at least consider the strategy & logistics behind it.

I agree with those advocating a global effort and a shared set of priorities - vaccinating the vulnerable everywhere first - because the thing that terrifies me most about this disease is vaccine escape. The variants that have emerged in the past few months (Kent, SA, Brazil) appear to trend towards both higher transmissibility and higher lethality. With global trade/travel being as it is, even with restrictions that most people consider stringent, a vaccine resistent variant ANYWHERE is a disaster everywhere. So while I understand the "ffs it's not fair, we've had enough" kneejerk reactions, and don't want to call people selfish, it's myopic and unwise.

I'll admit to not really knowing so can someone with more knowledge state just how the donated vaccines would be rolled out in poor developing countries which don't have electricity? Don't the vaccines all have to be stored and transported at low temp? Hasn't that always been a factor in why vaccines in general tend to not get implimanted in countries without that resource?

Yes, true we have to share vaccines fairly, and think of those who cannot get them themselves. Which has already been agreed indeed.

But... what about increasing the production instead of halting anyone's vaccine program? Why can't they use their factories to make more?
Following on other threads, comparing covid to war... guess what, have a read how long it took them to produce weapons, including chemical weapons, when they are at war. What they can do when they actually want to!

@Sparechange

Yes because while you yourself might be 'fine' you could still transmit the virus to someone who could get a severe dose.

But it’s now pretty apparent who gets a ‘severe dose’ and it’s almost always people with certain underlying conditions
The number of healthy young(ish) people getting it badly is vanishingly small

So you include those with underlying conditions are vulnerable, and then pause?

I think you've missed my point.

Yes, most healthy young people will have few if any symptoms. But if unvaccinated, they could still pass it to a more high-risk person. Not everyone in these groups can or will have the vaccine, and no vaccine offers complete immunity. So if we want to achieve herd immunity, then all adult age groups need to be vaccinated.

@Wandavision yes logistics and delivery have always been an issue with vaccines in poorer countries. Hence why so many children die of diseases we have pretty much eradicated.

@IrmaFayLear

Frankly I think some posters here would rather a 22-year-old serial killer from anywhere in Europe received the vaccine before a tubby white bloke in his 50s from Nuneaton.

because those are the only two options. Are you always this obtuse?

Have the WHO heard of Taiwan yet?😂

At least Taiwan have low doses of Covid.
They were quite happy to have an excuse to shut their border with China last year.

@MushMonster that seems better to me , shouldn't the world be looking at that , how can we help up production.
But doesn't it also come down to countries approving a vaccine , there are vaccines being used that we haven't approved and az not approved everywhere.
I take it also the guardian headline is actually misleading and the who didn't just mention the uk ?

There are many preventable diseases in the world that don't get vaccinated for. In some countries basic drugs like antibiotics are not available to all the population. Even basics like clean water, education, freedom from girls as young as 11 being married to men 3 or 4 times their age.

Before the UK or any other country pauses its vaccine programme to assist other countries these very basic inequalities need to be addressed. They never will be, because of corruption in those countries. Whats to say we pause the vacccine, people who would have gotten the vaccine continue to get it and get ill, maybe not seriously ill but its still a drain on the economic recovery, still frightening and still a risk for long covid. Meanwhile, we've diverted supplies to other countries where the most vulnerable are ignored to vaccinate the wealthy. It will happen in some countries, we can't even guarantee foreign aid will go to the right place.

The UK stumped up billions to have us in this position. If we continue to fund research and production as tax payers we should at least have the privilege of having the vaccines. If individuals feel differently they can always decline.

I don't think the one the UAE are using has been approved. Hungary got annoyed with EU & went Russian, is that approved?

@Frouby yes unfortunately that is the world we live in

@marbellamarc
Could we not have a group of experts and professionals to make these kind of decisions? Why is it down to someone on mumsnet (me) to work out a perfect and complete response to make it a valid idea/opinion?

@IrmaFayLear

Frankly I think some posters here would rather a 22-year-old serial killer from anywhere in Europe received the vaccine before a tubby white bloke in his 50s from Nuneaton.

Is the 22 year old serial killer ECV? I think you're missing the point. I think it's wrong for a healthy 22 year old in the UK to get the vaccine while an 82 year old in another country can't have one yet. That, to me, is morally wrong. And if it can be avoided then I would like it to be avoided.

Pp's have raised the point about other countries priority lists being different to ours and that is something that I wasn't aware of. And it's definitely something to take into consideration. I wouldn't want the UK to hold off on vaccination and give our vaccines to countries who are going to use them to vaccinate people that are at no more risk than the unnvaccinated people left in the uk are.

@Perfect28

For me, the fact we are doing so well at vaccinating just shows how selfish we are. We need to think of ourselves as a global community so I absolutely think that WHO are right, after the vulnerable are vaccinated the priority should be to vaccinate the vulnerable elsewhere.

I agree. We’ll be flamed for it though.

i think the country that instigated the pandemic ought to go above and beyond not only to explain how it happened but also to try and solve the problems they have caused.

as others have said, we have a very high death rate due to aged and unhealthy population. so its key we sought them out

While I can understand this to a degree. The more it spreads the more chance it has to mutate. We are dealing with a challenging mutation and our government has handled the whole pandemic really badly and we consequently are in an awful position with one of the worst death rates in the world. We are finally getting something right and we are being asked to scale it back. I’m in my 30s and have taken the whole thing extremely seriously but am seeing far too many reports of people under 50 dying, in intensive care and living with the debilitating effects of long Covid and selfishly I’d like my vaccination. I’ve been home schooling my daughter since way before the schools closed due to concerns about the safety of them and I’ve followed the rules and the only thing keeping me going is the promise of some normality. Our track and trace system isn’t going to keep things under control. The vaccination is far from 100 percent effective and our children and others can’t or won’t be vaccinated. Let’s try and get it under some form of control here and increase our protection for the most vulnerable by reducing community spread and hopefully avoiding a mutation that by passes the vaccination that’s been given to our most vulnerable or we’ll be back to square one! Then we can begin to help other countries too we aren’t taking away doses from other countries and we will play an important role in helping with funding etc but we are in crisis here too.

The UK is an independent country and can do what we like.

No need to take 'advice' from the WHO.

Our scientists got ahead of the curve, we were organised, the EU dithered.

End of, really.