Other countries offering choice of vaccine

[doireallyneedaname]

I have relatives in Cyprus who are able to choose with vaccine they’d like - AZ or Pfizer.

They have been given an appointment for next week and told that they will be told beforehand which vaccine they are having, and if they want the other they can reschedule for that one.

I just read a news article which seems to confirm this.

Appreciate the population is minuscule compared to the UK and many other countries but given the recent news re AZ efficacy against the SA strain (which I believe will likely be the same against further mutations) - I can’t help but wish we’d order more Pfizer and give people the choice.

So OP which countries with a state funded health care system are offering a choice of vaccine? Please enlighten us.
I have been treated in Cyprus, privately, it was great. Also in France and Switzerland, privately. Actually, U.K. doing far better on Covid vaccine roll out than France and Switzerland. So we have chosen speed. Look at our death rates. It is the right strategy for the U.K. with the NHS right now. If they have to revaccinate, so be it. We also do more flu jabs than many other countries. Each country/ government has to make an individual choice.

@CovoidOfAllHumanity It’s not 70% though, is it? It was 70% before the new variants. It’s now 70-80% against the current strain. If AZ held up to those at 70% I’d be perfectly happy. I’d also be perfectly happy if it proves to protect against severe disease, but that remains to be seen.

@Musicaldilemma someone in Germany posted here stating they have a choice there.

[quote doireallyneedaname]@Musicaldilemma someone in Germany posted here stating they have a choice there.[/quote]
I mean, that's a largely theoretical choice at the moment given their low vaccine roll out.

So typical of someone who reads articles and comes to a conclusion having read headlines. Regardless of less efficacy against SA strain it will still stop people becoming seriously ill and keep people of hospital. People like you come over as shellfish. Three quarters of the world don't have any vaccine. Just refuse the vaccine and let someone more grateful take it.

Honestly why are people still entertaining this weird AF OP? All the OP did throughout this thread is rinse repeat her "facts". Even with the most intelligent posts OP gets to try and explain why it wouldn't be logistically possible to enable choice of vaccine for anyone at this point and that all in all having the AZ vaccine is still a better option than ending up with covid,she only has 1 response "but it is a fact.."
I'm sure OP has all the extra time in the world to waste by turning up to appointments and refusing the AZ if offered. Goodluck OP to get your Pfizer vaccine

@Butterfly44 Clearly part of the problem is that people believe that AZ will prevent severe disease against the SA strain when we don’t actually know if that’s true.

If we did then I agree this post would be pretty unjust.

@Shehz21 Oh yes, it’s so weird to want the best protection. Have a word with yourself.

You'll probably be able to pay for the best protection by the end of the year.

The question is whether you want some protection now.

OP actually there has been a small trail testing the AZ vaccine on the SA variant and while it showed less efficacy and doesn't prevent mild moderate symptoms NONE OF THOSE IN THE TRIAL DEVELOPED SERIOUS EFFECTS THAT THEY HAD TO BE HOSPITALISED. In Nature Medicine journal. Do keep up and stop reading sensationalist headlines

@MessAllOver Well yeah. I haven’t actually said I wouldn’t have the AZ vaccine either. People have jumped to conclusions.

Have a word with yourself op. Why would you argue for a choice if you were convinced we are sat on some dystopic time bomb? Surely you think tlwe should only have pfizer. You'd like to benefit from all the health and social benefits of the mass vaccination with Oxford and to get to people you love on the list but you think you should have your favoured vaccine when you sit in the seat.

Yes. It's selfish. Have it/don't have it/ kick up a fuss but don't pretend you have some kind of moral or intellectual high ground here.

@Butterfly44 Yeah.. they were all in their early 30’s so would have been unlikely to develop severe disease regardless. The average participant age was 31.

Listen, I hope it does. I really do.

Oh fgs.

You get protected in 2 ways. 1 by being vaccinated, 2 by as many people as possible around you being vaccinated as quickly as possible.
Yes some vaccines are more effective than others but the most effective way to make everyone including you safer is to get all the vaccines we’ve got into arms as fast as possible rather than hang around waiting until we can do everyone with the one with the highest efficacy.

[quote doireallyneedaname]@Shehz21 Oh yes, it’s so weird to want the best protection. Have a word with yourself.[/quote]
And yet again just repeating things.
Most posters have told YOU to have a word with yourself. You are either copying sensationalist headlines or what other doom mongering posters write. Literally it's all you do.
And with all due respect, with regards to your username I don't know whether you really need a name but you do really need a brain.

@FourTeaFallOut

Have a word with yourself op. Why would you argue for a choice if you were convinced we are sat on some dystopic time bomb? Surely you think tlwe should only have pfizer. You'd like to benefit from all the health and social benefits of the mass vaccination with Oxford and to get to people you love on the list but you think you should have your favoured vaccine when you sit in the seat.

Yes. It's selfish. Have it/don't have it/ kick up a fuss but don't pretend you have some kind of moral or intellectual high ground here.

Very well said 👏🏽

[quote doireallyneedaname]@Musicaldilemma someone in Germany posted here stating they have a choice there.[/quote]
That was me. We're in a very different situation than the UK. The vaccination programme works differently. The healthcare system is different. Community transmission is currently very low. Variants have been isolated so far. Our hospitalisation and death rates are half those in the UK. Children aren't being sent to school with no measures.

I wanted to agree with you at the beginning of this thread in saying yes, other countries are offering a choice. You've turned the thread into a vaccine comparison game, where Pfizer is the superior choice and AZ is useless, and you're comparing apples with oranges when you add different countries to the mix.

Yes, where I live in Germany you can choose. Not everywhere though. Yes, the vaccine rollout is slower, because doses are administered within 21 days of each other without fail and only after a person is given their second dose, are they recorded as vaccinated in the official numbers. It's a different system. Move to Cyprus if you want to choose your own Pfizer vaccine. I for one am grateful people in the UK are being immunised. The country needs it ASAP.

To be honest as the other poster highlighted, you all sound like the same posters that belittled worried folk in the beginning of the pandemic, claiming we had nothing to worry about.

I find your responses quite embarrassing and sad. A bit of advice too - repeatedly insulting someone won’t make them respect your opinions and it definitely won’t sway them to your side.

The facts remain, like them or not, we do not have the most effective vaccine and it could land us in trouble.

Time will tell.

Time will tell
Ok, let's just circle back in six months and leave all this doom muppetry for today.

I haven’t actually said I wouldn’t have the AZ vaccine either. People have jumped to conclusions.

What exactly is it that you're complaining about? You're in an incredibly fortunate position (as we all are in this country). You'll be offered one vaccine in the next few months and, if you don't think it's effective enough, you'll probably be able to pay privately for another vaccine later on this year once everyone in the UK has been offered a vaccine. And there will probably be a booster available on the NHS for the first vaccine by then which will increase its effectiveness.

Meanwhile, much of the rest of the world will have to wait.

I'm sorry, but it does seem a little bit like you're jumping up and down saying, "I want the best! For MEEEEEE! Now!"

The truth is that the scientists and pharmaceutical companies have done the work of 10 years in 1 year. And, in doing so, they've dug us out of a huge hole since the Covid second wave was completely overwhelming our hospitals and people were (still are) dying in corridors. And locking down indefinitely is not a solution.

Time will tell

People are dying. I hold a very similar opinion regarding Pfizer/AZ to you OP, but I won't be able to secretly rejoice if I'm ever proven right. Because people will have died in the meantime. If it's every proven that Pfizer was much more effective and everyone should've had it and we could've avoided an extra X deaths because of it, I definitely won't feel superior for coming up with that months in advance. We need to grow up and realise this isn't a competition or a game.

Last time...

Where did you get that fact
Where did you get that far ?
Isn't it a lumpy one and changing all the time?
I also have one, just not the same as that
Where'ere OP may go posters shout, hello
Where did you get that fact?

No-one has enough supply of 'the most effective vaccine' to vaccinate their entire population.
It's literally only Switzerland that isn't going to use AZ vaccine at all. No other countries have refused their supplies and decided it's not worth bothering with.
So that would be just you OP who thinks it isn't worth bothering with and obviously you are entitled to your opinion but it does appear that none of the international regulators share your view.

In the places where they've done mass testing for the SA variant in the U.K. having found a few cases they didn't find any more cases in the mass testing so it's hardly widespread.

@doireallyneedaname

How is efficacy not a valid reason? One offers over 80% against the SA strain and one 10% - regardless of that specific mutation not being dominant right now, it could very well happen and that’s not forgetting other mutations. Pfizer & Morerna seem better equipped at protecting against mutations in comparison to AZ.

I don’t think that’s a silly reason to want Pfizer.

It might not silly to want Pfizer, even if your rationale is deeply flawed, but it would be profoundly stupid to base the vaccination policy of the UK on this.

The UK is trying to cut the number of UK people dying, either of COVID or because the NHS system is not set up to deal with a long-term pandemic and cover all other medical needs (although they are giving it a bloody good try) while balancing the financial needs of the country - as if we have no money, we won’t be able to afford education and a NHS!
It is not about the individual, or pandering to individual wants.

@EileenGC Certainly. I hope I’m proven wrong. Maybe that came out the wrong way!