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.

Yes, we may not know definitively whether the AZ vaccine protects against the SA variant. But your choice isn't going to be AZ or Pfizer. It's going to be AZ or nothing.

@ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia “semi anti vaxxer” for wanting the most protective vaccine. I’ve heard it all now 🙄

My parents booked using the online link and were told it was AZ, and then a few days later contacted by GP and offered Pfizer which they're having tomorrow. I wondered if the GP surgery were purposely giving older vulnerable people who had been shielding the Pfizer... but no idea.

Do you have the flu vaccine @doireallyneedaname? If so, you do realise it's not guaranteed to work against that season's strain as no one knows for sure in advance what it will be?

@PinkSparklyPussyCat Yes, I’m fully aware. In case you haven’t realised, Coronavirus is significantly more dangerous.

No, I never knew! Thank you for enlightening me, there I was thinking there was no difference. Every days a school day!

@PinkSparklyPussyCat You’re welcome.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat

No, I never knew! Thank you for enlightening me, there I was thinking there was no difference. Every days a school day!

Despite OP calling me “judgemental and rude”, I’ve stayed on the thread as there have been some very interesting posts on here.

I don’t disagree with the theory that some vaccines may be less efficacious towards some variants than others. What I do take issue with is the way some people intend to deal with the situation. To me, it seems sensible to have what is offered as every vaccination even if slightly less efficacious is another step towards reducing the effects of Covid in the community. There aren’t enough supplies of any single vaccine available for everyone to have the same, and that situation cannot be remedied in the immediate future. Not to mention that if thousands of people start fannying around refusing vaccines and cancelling appointments the whole programme would grind to a halt.

If it turns out the vaccines need tweaking and a booster is needed in the autumn then that’s fine by me, at least in the meantime I’ll have had more protection than I have now (which is none at all).

@MrsFezziwig I completely agree with you. I don’t understand the mentality of people who won’t take what’s on offer to deal with the strains we have now. Get vaccinated, be protected and have a booster later on if it proves necessary. If we order more doses of Pfizer now we’ll be at the back of the queue so what are we supposed to do, halt the vaccination programme until it’s delivered?

[quote doireallyneedaname]@CrackOpenTheGin

Exactly what you said. We have no idea if the Oxford vaccine will protect against severe disease when it comes to the SA variant, but we know the others do. Perhaps it’s too traumatic for people to read so they instead waffle on about how selfish and “dim” we are for voicing this.[/quote]
Well let them do what they want to do. I know I’m going to do what’s right for me this time. Nobody else has given me a second thought during this pandemic.

‘. Nobody else has given me a second thought during this pandemic.’

I don’t know what your expectations are and why you think you specifically are more important than everyone else but huge numbers of people have been working, often unpaid, for the public good throughout the pandemic, including in the vaccine rollout.

About 4m people are supposed to have had covid up to now, myself included.
Az is supposed to be about 60% efficacy. If you have had covid, you are supposed to be at about 80% efficacy[hope I am using the right words]. For some months at least. Spring/summer is coming, and last year, cases of covid went right down.
What would be the point of having Az at this point, for those people? Even the Pfizer one is only supposed to make you go from 80% to up to 95%.
Not to mention new variants coming along, which muddles the situation still further.

I am quite prepared to be wrong on this. And quite prepared not to back up my point on this thread if I am!

@lightand People should have a vaccine even if they’ve had covid because not everyone that had it will maintain their antibodies or maintain their response.

Vaccines generate a very robust response and it is likely to last longer than a natural response, too.

Someone called Tim on This Morning has said that Pfizer is giving 67% protection to healthcare workers who have had the jab. No mention of how long effects will last.
So even that one is not up to the 80% if you have had covid.

@lightand Tim Spector. I assume he’s talking about the 67% protection 3 weeks after the first dose, which increases further after the 2nd dose to the 80% mark. Not sure how that’s relevant to your question though?

@lightand Just read the article - I think you’ve misunderstood. He’s saying that the protection increases to 67% at 3-6 weeks from 46% at 2 weeks (which wasn’t expected) with AZ/Pfizer - then you get your 2nd vaccination and it increases further to the relevant efficacy, depending which vaccine it is.

Efficacy was measured in a very different way in the two original papers for Pfizer and Astra Zeneca. Unless you are reading the original data, I don't think you can possibly understand it?

@janinlondon This isn’t a debate about which vaccine is more effective. I don’t need the data, the experts have deciphered it and reported on the efficacy of each vaccine for us and that is what I go by.

@janinlondon I suspect that the response to you tells you all you need to know!!

The OP has an unmoving agenda. And it isn't to become better acquainted with the rigours of medical research!

The very first reply said everything really. Whining over something that isn’t within your control is pointless.

@CuriousaboutSamphire What on earth are you talking about? Honestly, some of these responses on here make me question people’s mental health.

Regardless how you feel about my original post and feelings, you can’t sit there and pretend the AZ is as effective as the other vaccines when we have data showing it is the LEAST effective of all, followed by J&J.

Your refusal to acknowledge this is just bizarre at this point, and acting as if I have somehow come up with this myself is even more bizarre.

The only take home message I got out of this thread (because of my curiosity) is that one can have the tenacity to be a serial vaccination refuser until the perceived "holy gail magical life giving nectar" was being finally administered to ones liking!

I never knew with billions globally waiting and many dying daily without would this world beating level of British entitlementism reach such heights to undermine the amazing work of frontline British medical professionals with the full support of logistical proven excellence of the British Army in this ongoing battle to beat this virus before the new evolving local mutations beat the vaccines!

Well said @ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia. I really hope that if the serial refusers waste appointments because they can't get what they are pushed to the back of the queue.

Vaccinate for the here and now, let the scientists worry about future boosters.

[quote doireallyneedaname]@CuriousaboutSamphire What on earth are you talking about? Honestly, some of these responses on here make me question people’s mental health.

Regardless how you feel about my original post and feelings, you can’t sit there and pretend the AZ is as effective as the other vaccines when we have data showing it is the LEAST effective of all, followed by J&J.

Your refusal to acknowledge this is just bizarre at this point, and acting as if I have somehow come up with this myself is even more bizarre.[/quote]
Question way! Some of those people you think maybe a tad unhinged are simply far more well informed than you are!

I am not pretending anything. I've made my point of view quite clearly, as have others.

I am not refusing to acknowledge anything either. It is not bizarre to understand how such medical decisions are made, balancing any number of salient facts and not being held hostage by unsupported data!

That you refuse to interact with any perspective beynd your own with anything other than such disingenuous disbelief and and casting aspersions on the mental acuity of the posters suggests an intransigent frame of mind.