10 million people vaccinated already - brilliant!

[buttery81]

This is a continuation of the previous thread, www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4145954-6-3-million-people-vaccinated-already-brilliant

This thread is intended as a positive place to observe our remarkable vaccine rollout as it progresses and to celebrate the ever increasing numbers as we go.

Polite notice: conspiracy theorists, doommongers and those looking for endless debate over vaccine efficacy, leave vs remain and one-legged trousers - this is probably not the thread for you.

So, to pick up from where we left off... a truly tremendous 10,021,471 people in the UK have now received their first dose of the vaccine - that’s 18.9% (or 1 in every 5.3) of all UK adults.

There’s no doubt about it - there is an unmistakable light at the end of this long, long tunnel and every day it’s getting brighter. Come on folks - let’s do this!!

Data collected on the first rollout of the Covid vaccine justifies the Government's decision to delay the second dose, according to an expert.

Professor Anthony Harnden, of the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation, says those already given the jab are experiencing high levels of protection from their first dose.

And the data, set to be published next week by Public Health England, shows infection rates in those over the age of 80 have fallen in the past month.

The data is coming in that you can still catch Covid (but mostly people are still only up to four weeks approx post vaccine) but in general they are coming through as asymptomatic or little to no symptoms.

Great news!

Professor Anthony Harnden, of the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation, says those already given the jab are experiencing high levels of protection from their first dose.

And the data, set to be published next week by Public Health England, shows infection rates in those over the age of 80 have fallen in the past month.

Also great news! Looking forward to seeing the data from Public Health England

There’s always someone with a story of someone who caught it a second time, or after having the vaccine.... in fact, I have one myself, in my sister. She tested positive 2 weeks after first Pfizer jab. Sore throat and stuffy nose for a couple of days, then sat at home bored for the rest of her isolation period (14 days where she is).

The important thing is the statistics. How many catch it after vaccination/infection, compared to those who have not been exposed? How many have serious symptoms, need hospital care, or die if they catch it after previous infection/vaccination, compared to the previously uninfected and unvaccinated?

There will be some. But it will be a lot lot lot lot less.

• Data collected on the first rollout of the Covid vaccine justifies the Government's decision to delay the second dose, according to an expert.

Professor Anthony Harnden, of the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation, says those already given the jab are experiencing high levels of protection from their first dose.*

Report in the Sunday Times today:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/its-official-delaying-second-dose-of-covid-vaccine-saves-lives-vqp70xn3l?shareToken=573d30d00c6c6e35bbf32bfbb20f8ed4

For those interested a very insightful interview with kate Bingham about the British vaccination procurement strategy
www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2021/02/07/news/kate_bingham_interview_vaccines_covid_astrazeneca_uk_coronavirus_johnson-286384093/

@Frazzled2207 such an interesting read, the UK were so far ahead with setting up vaccine sites and development. Kate Bingham is such a calm practical woman.

@Baileysforchristmas
Yes - some people on here have said that actually KB is not actually as brilliant as some articles would make out and she’s definitely made some mistakes along the way, but overall the UK does seem to have done very well out of this. It was a huge gamble though and things could have been very different.

@Frazzled2207 what a brilliant interview thanks for sharing. You would want her on your team. She is pragmatic, cooperative and no bullshit.

And of course people would like to put her down. Is a British trait.

I haven’t read it but yes she is brilliant.

Having heard her on radio. What an absolutely incredible hit rate with working vaccines. That takes confidence and high levels of expertise.

It also shows how well she understands the pharmaceutical companies, they’re not in it for profit, they genuinely want to help with fighting diseases against human kind, Kate knew this and went in with an attitude how can we help not hinder the process, that’s where the EU went wrong.

I’m not going to get into how brilliant I think she is or not but I recall eyebrows being raised because of her venture capitalist background- it would appear that this was in the end a huge advantage and quite a different approach to anywhere else

I saw that the W.H.O special envoy has said the UK should offer their vaccines to other countries once the over 50s are jabbed.

I really hope this isn’t going to happen what with the number of under 50s currently in ICU and suffering. I’d be all for sharing with a third world country but not to those who already have huge amounts on order.

Is the US, China, Russia etc under a similar amount of pressure to share their vaccines?

I hope I’m not being negative. I just feel comfortable asking questions here because I get calm and measured responses that normally put my mind at ease.

I think every adult in the UK will be offered the vaccine before it goes elsewhere.

This issue is what's good for us is bad for the world. The WHO data shows that if we share, worldwide deaths will fall 66%. If we don't share, they'll only fall 33% and there's a far higher chance of mutations in the countries that can't vaccinate soon, which could be bad news for us.

I'm a healthy 40yo and I would be more than happy for 'my' vaccine to go to a vulnerable person in another country. I'm not antivaxx by any means, but I don't feel I 'need' this vaccine. I will of course have it, when offered!

I really don’t think it will happen @Londt, mostly because it would be political suicide for any government - especially as the UK has one of the highest death rates in the world. I also imagine the logistical challenge would be immense, bordering on impossible.

@Londt you’re not being negative it’s actually a really good point. We really need to be protecting those groups that are getting no hospitalised, and we really need to get our hospitalisations and deaths under control before we share anything. I also agree that sharing with poor countries is different to sharing with powerful nations who just haven’t got their arses into gear.

There will be a point though, as Affor says, where the rest of the world will need to be on the same page, or nothing will really change.

I’m almost 40 and don’t worry about not having the vaccine for a while; I wouldn’t be angry if someone more vulnerable from another country took mine. But I do want our situation under control before this happens.

And yes, there seems to be an emphasis on the UK sharing, but not other countries. I wonder if this is our media manipulating that impression or if the WHO did mention other nations as well as ours.

Table from ourworldindata.org comparing different countries’ vaccination numbers. We’re currently third!

I'm of the opinion that if and when we can get vaccine production to the point where we are on track with having us all immunised by the end of August, then any surplus beyond that plan should go to countries where case rates are running out of control. I don't think that means that we need to have 'done' everyone, just that we have sufficient supplies being generated to meet that target.

If we hadn't ballsed things up so badly in terms of deaths and case numbers, we would have been in a better position to share earlier. But the sad fact remains - we have one of the worst death numbers in the world.

I would have thought third world countries would be better with a single dose vaccine. So hopefully the UK can help in that way with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine although I'm not sure it's as cheap as AZ.

@Affor

This issue is what's good for us is bad for the world. The WHO data shows that if we share, worldwide deaths will fall 66%. If we don't share, they'll only fall 33% and there's a far higher chance of mutations in the countries that can't vaccinate soon, which could be bad news for us.

This needs to take into account the fact that the UK has contributed £548 million to the Covax scheme and the AZ vaccine is not for profit and is incredibly cheap.

We have a horrible death rate if global data is accurate for other countries. We need to get our situation under control if we are to go on supporting the global effort.

I agree BUT I was reading this morning how India seems to be prioritising sending vaccines to other countries such as Cambodia and Maldives above vaccinating their own. I wonder what their population makes of it. They do have the biggest vaccine manufacturing capacity of all though, I think

And there’s no point in 3rd world countries having Pfizer vaccine as it’s not easy to store and distribute.