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.

@CuriousaboutSamphire Actually, all you have done is show how uninformed you are.

I posted about being given a choice and it was twisted and turned in to something completely different, with people banging on in blind defence of our “British vaccine” regardless of the fact it’s the least effective one. I don’t know why you don’t just look up the official data and you’d see for yourself 🙄

is there actually any Pfizer vaccine available in the UK now that groups 1-4 are done? has anyone outside these groups had it? I would be very surprised.

This country will be going down the route of using the slightly less effective OX/AZ for the non vulnerable groups/rest of adults and then booster shot with the adjusted sequence in the Autumn. There's no way we will do anything but use up the first massive supply not Ox/Az first in the least vulnerable. I'm fine with that as ultimately we will end up with a specifically tailored booster in the autumn just before it all kicks off again which will be more effective than all the gen 1 original vaccines.

Anyone who hasn't been done already holding out for the Pfizer now in this country is on a hiding to nothing i.e no vaccine and no protection I think and will most likely end up getting regular old UK/Kent covid.

@minch the UK has ordered almost 60 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna combined, so I’m not so sure about that.

My friend had Pfizer a couple of weeks ago but everyone else I know has had AZ even at places that had previously been administering Pfizer.

There's a difference between ordering and having them available, just ask the EU!

@PinkSparklyPussyCat I am far down the list, I have time to wait.

[quote doireallyneedaname]@CuriousaboutSamphire Actually, all you have done is show how uninformed you are.

I posted about being given a choice and it was twisted and turned in to something completely different, with people banging on in blind defence of our “British vaccine” regardless of the fact it’s the least effective one. I don’t know why you don’t just look up the official data and you’d see for yourself 🙄[/quote]
No, not really!

I haven't twisted anything. I have responded directly to your posts.

I have looked at the official data. I have looked at the interim data. I have looked at many opinion pieces on the data. I have even looked at a couple of the source documents.

Nothing changes my infomred opinion:
a) AZ is effective against the strain currently most prevalent here
b) AZ is tweaking the vaccine to cover new variants in anticipation of a not unexpected booster, upsurge, later in the year
c) Good enough is good enough, the more people vaccinated the better.
d) The situation will change again and again over the next few years. All vaccines will become more and less effecttive at any given time.
e) Thredds such as these are almost as reprehensible as the ill informed journalist driven pieces that drive them!

Ok so maybe 30 million of Pfizer say. The top categories 1-4 and NHS staffmostky got Pfizer initially, say. That 10/15 million odd, at least. Doesn't that mean that most of the rest is being held back for those people's second dose plus some for anyone that has an allergic reaction to first AZ going forward down into the lower categories?

I think they must surely have stopped or be very close to stopping giving out Pfizer as a first dose for non vulnerable people here.

So am I. I'm not so pig headed though that I won't take what I'm offered and be vaccinated against the current strains and have a booster later on. I'd like to go back to some sort of normal and the more idiots that refuse vaccines/waste appointments the harder it will be and the longer it will take.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat Show me where I said I’d refuse AZ.

I also know people who had Pfizer a month ago, but in recent weeks it's all been AZ, even for the over 70s. I hope that now that supplies are restored, there will be more available, but it's hard to find anyone who knows for sure. I also don't know if specific sites request it (if they are sites capable of administering it) or if they just get what turns up that week - I wonder also how much notice they get. I couldn't do a fairly last minute appointment last week, but don't actually know when the next batch will be available, or whether there will be much more warning for that one either.

There must be some Pfizer still coming for first doses, though, as so many groups 1-4 got the AZ that it can't have been used up, as it was coming in stages. I thought that recent weeks they might have been using AZ as well as they were taking it into nursing homes, and presumably using what was left on patients at the hub.

I'd quite like Pfizer if it happens to come available in the near future at the GPs, which is where I need to go for mine, which I thought was reasonably likely as that is what they used initially, but I'm not going to wait for weeks for it.

You may or may not have done, I'm not trawling back through the thread to find out, it's like fucking Groundhog Day! Someone else certainly did and has said they will waste the appointments to get what they want.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat Rightio... so attacking me for something I “may or may not have done” seems perfectly reasonable, eh? Once again people letting their fantasies blind them to reality. Good one.

FYI, I didn’t.

My parents' elderly neighbours (mid-80s) received Pfizer at their local vaccination centre in Jan. My DF (early 70s) received AZ there last week.

There are Pfizer deliveries scheduled for every single week, so I don't know why you would think that?

The other thing is how are you going to refuse if you don't like the one offered? Everyone I know who has had a vaccine, at either GP led or national NHS places didnt get told which vaccine they were getting until after they'd checked in and had proceeded through - i.e identified themselves and had their NHS number checked.

I think I'd be worried that if I then refused and left that they'd either mark me as a refusal and that would prevent me from booking a subsequent appointmemt in the future or even that the people administering it wouldn't remember/be able to "reset" my NHS number with the same effect - not able to book a subsequent appointmemt.

There are Pfizer deliveries scheduled for every single week, so I don't know why you would think that?

If you know that to be true, fair enough, but how do you know they aren't the timed deliveries for second doses/allergic people?

@doireallyneedaname

Original poster we understand from the evolving published scientific information about the relative differences in the technology used and relative potential efficacy against a range of currently known variants.

However bottom line - they are firstly all safe and importantly are fit for purpose in helping to protect against this virus and hopefully prevent fatalities or severe disease. Yes some may be slightly scientifically more efficacious against the South African variants but currently that variant is not the dominant UK variant. Should this change then I am confident that our British scientists (first to approve and administer) will be alert as to subsequent vaccination strategies taking carefully due consideration of all evolving material facts.

There are new global mutations and variants daily so perhaps all the current vaccinated vaccines will all eventually need reformulation in the future and hence ongoing perhaps seasonal boaster vaccines etc etc as more is discovered over time with mass vaccination.

If anyone wants to "donate" their University of Oxford Astrazeneca vaccination to me then I will drop everything to gratefully receive the protection! I ready double down with two seasonal (periodically spaced apart) influenza vaccinations just for added reassurance. I just did not have the courage to sign up as tester for the Covid vaccination trials. I regret that now with the fussy nonsense online these days from non scientific specialists! All vaccines help as a part of the solution not cause!

Perhaps there should be a refusers hotline so that others waiting not waste precious life saving vaccinations!

@doireallyneedaname

That’s not really a valid comparison as they are not the same product and one is significantly more effective.

They both have their strengths and weaknesses. For example, AZ has been shown to stop transmission. Pfizer has a higher percentage efficacy rate. AZ works against the Kent variant. You only need one dose of Pfizer if you've had covid already (according to the French). AZ can be given anywhere, Pfizer is more difficult to transport.

etc etc

I don't care which I get and suspect that by the time they get to me it could be Moderna or the Johnson & Johnson one!

@PinkSparklyPussyCat

So am I. I'm not so pig headed though that I won't take what I'm offered and be vaccinated against the current strains and have a booster later on. I'd like to go back to some sort of normal and the more idiots that refuse vaccines/waste appointments the harder it will be and the longer it will take.

If you read my post properly I didn't name you, I didn't even refer to any of your posts and it was not directed personally at you.

There are plenty of people refusing vaccines and one poster on this thread (not you and I never claimed it was) who would waste an appointment if they don't get what they want.

@poppycat10 Pfizer has also been shown to reduce transmission.

@CoffeeandCroissant

There are Pfizer deliveries scheduled for every single week, so I don't know why you would think that?

We aren’t getting any apart from 2nd doses for the next 3 weeks.

I don't actually believe that, when push came to shove, anyone would refuse the vaccine offered to them if it wasn't the one they wanted when they finally got into a vaccination centre. You'd have to have some kind of serious personality disorder to rock up to a vaccine centre, after waiting months and months for an appointment, and voluntary leave with no protection from the covid virus rather than some, especially when the concern is around what is currently not the dominant strain. Some antibodies are always going to increase your chances of a mild case over none.

@minchinfin

There are Pfizer deliveries scheduled for every single week, so I don't know why you would think that?

If you know that to be true, fair enough, but how do you know they aren't the timed deliveries for second doses/allergic people?

Because I have seen the scheduled numbers and the dates; but also second doses don't really become a factor until late March early/April. Going forward (from now onwards), yes the majority of first doses will be indeed be AZ, by quite a large margin, but I don't think it's the case that 'they have stopped or are very close to stopping giving out Pfizer as a first dose'. From the end of March/beginning of April it's possible that most of the supply of Pfizer will be used for second doses (haven't calculated the numbers, too lazy) so yes, that's a fair point, but that won't be the case for a while yet...

The other thing is how are you going to refuse if you don't like the one offered? Everyone I know who has had a vaccine, at either GP led or national NHS places didnt get told which vaccine they were getting until after they'd checked in and had proceeded through - i.e identified themselves and had their NHS number checked.

I don't think I'd refuse either, but I might try to book at the right centre if I had a preference. At least one of the hubs here does say on their website which it is on which days (recently, all AZ anyway so not an issue). I would like to know if they know which one they are getting next and when, but that information obviously isn't available! I'd like to know how much notice they get for a delivery, though, and whether they can ask for particular dates/vaccine, to help them organise the clinics. The last one was at very short notice, and I couldn't easily do it. But if they are all going to be like that, then I will rearrange everything possible so that I can next time!