Do you agree with the UKs vaccination approach?

[LoveHeartHug]

The vaccine trials were trialed on a 2 injections spaced apart over a few weeks. Itt's common for some side effects to occur from some doses of the vaccine especially after second dose of vaccine.

My worry is if someone contracts the virus after receiving one dose of the vaccine and what would happen. If a serious illness occurs.

I was also watching TV earlier in the week and someone on a show was saying the UK is at 24% vaccinated. I felt watching it that it wasn't true. There's 24% partially vaccinated.

I totally agree with the UK's approach, we have made some brilliant decisions and no of course it's not down to 'luck'

I watch all of the press briefings and believe it when Chris Whitty and JVT provide assurances based on the research. I’m not qualified to question it and haven’t heard any reason to question it.

I would raelly like to know what evidence they are collecting at the moment regarding Pfizer antibodies and the three week vs 12 week schedule. I can't believe that they would just say, 'oh let's wait and see what the rates are like after 12 weeks and then we'll know' - they must surely be testing UK people after 3, 4, 6, 8 etc weeks to see what happens to antibody rates, and who gets the disease when (if any) after the first shot. Surely. And yet I've not heard of anyone in the UK on a trial for this, as Pfizer didn't do their initial trial here. Does anyone know if and where this sort of study is being done?

The Israel and other data is fine but they didn't really test in the weeks beyond 3 weeks as they gave the second shots then as per the recommendations. I don't think there is anywhere else a study could have been done but in the UK

I'm booked for Pfizer next Friday and would have been more than happy to volunteer for continued antibody testing or whatever, but no-where to sign up!

I think it’s perfect approach.
In some EU countries it’s all shambles.
In Czech Republic’s for example- who has very high cases of Covid, they are not even vaccinating, just few privileged people got the vac.
The government makes stupid competitions for various companies to fight and to win who gets the right to vaccinate.
Shocking.
So I believe here it’s very well managed.

So we wouldnt now be down to to people more likely to catch and spread and therefore die the younger have more life lost, have young kids. Many of these shielded are expected to still send kids to school and once out of lockdown would be probably back at schools/offices etc.

I've read this 3 times and still don't understand?

and yes I think a lot of it is down to luck. Same as with which vaccines we backed and invested in. Some horses came home, others didn't, and we were lucky that we had backed some of the good ones. That was always a risk and needed luck. Changing the dosage was an calculated risk, based on some evidence but ultimately still down to luck - the virus might have mutated in the meantime and made everything worse for the whole world, based on UK actions. Not following manufacturer's regulations is never an ideal situation, so of course it needed luck.

I think it was the right call and agree that they wouldn’t have done it without some scientific backing,.

The government makes stupid competitions for various companies to fight and to win who gets the right to vaccinate.
Shocking.

Wtf? Like a covid X factor?

100% agree with the decision. Some people talk about it as if the government just made a stab in the dark with it. I’m sure they listened to the scientists who know about other vaccines and how long immunity lasts, had access to trial data and just generally years and years of expertise on the subjects. So yes it was a guess but a very very educated one.

Yes. There have been a lot of criticism over the Governments handing of this crisis, and a lot of it is justified. But I have to say the whole vaccine roll out has been amazing. From securing the right vaccines, spacing the doses to reach as many people as possible and the organisation involved in delivering each jab, it’s been brilliant. Thank goodness we are in such a good position.

Seems to be working so I'm happy. Wiser people than us will be working on it.

No one goes around saying their baby is partially vaccinated as they haven't had that final tetanus jab they don't get until they're 14.

I think the UK has done very well. Very well organised. But I am heartily sick of all the time given to vaccine refusers. Their loss.

Yes

I don’t understand vaccines. But I had the Pfizer vaccine ( nhs) and my worry is with the second dose be like starting again as the first doses were so far apart. Will I be fully vaccinated once I have had two doses?

@Viviennemary

I think the UK has done very well. Very well organised. But I am heartily sick of all the time given to vaccine refusers. Their loss.

Sadly potentially not only their loss, depending how many there turn out to be. If there are enough of them, that could be enough of an unprotected pool to allow free circulation of the virus, to the detriment of those who can’t have the vaccine for medical reasons.

Not worth worrying about now, though. We should continue to work through those who are champing at the bit to get their vaccine. Perhaps in the summer will be the time to launch a focussed campaign on the refusers. Surely by then they can’t credibly be saying the vaccines are going to poison us all etc.

The UK strategy was not a gamble. To say so suggests we took a complete chance which is not the case at all. Any scientist who knows anything about vaccinations would agree that the vast majority of protection comes with the first dose and the second is purely a booster.

As others have pointed out the AZ vaccine was tested at various intervals and has been shown to be most effective with a longer gap.

Pfizer never said their vaccine wouldn’t work with a longer gap. They simply pointed out that it hadn’t been tested in that way.

@JaneNorman

The UK strategy was not a gamble. To say so suggests we took a complete chance which is not the case at all. Any scientist who knows anything about vaccinations would agree that the vast majority of protection comes with the first dose and the second is purely a booster.

As others have pointed out the AZ vaccine was tested at various intervals and has been shown to be most effective with a longer gap.

Pfizer never said their vaccine wouldn’t work with a longer gap. They simply pointed out that it hadn’t been tested in that way.

I agree with this.

I think it was what the UK needed in December, getting on with the vaccination programme. The amount of cases and deaths the UK has had are very scary, and I am very relieved to hear most of my friends’ parents who are 60+ and still going to work every day and mingling on public transport, have received their doses. It’s what the country needed.

What I don’t agree with is the 24% figure of people who have been vaccinated. Unless all the countries reported in the same way, then it’s just a bit of bragging and a half-truth. My state in Germany has officially vaccinated just under 4% of the population. When you hear that on the news, it doesn’t sound good. But, as most of Europe does, they only count those who have received both doses. If you add everyone who’s had a first dose then it’s around 10% with almost half of that fully vaccinated, which taking into account we only had one vaccine available until 2 weeks, isn’t that bad either. It’s not that easy to compare countries when they report differently.

*two weeks ago, that was meant to read.

I’m in the US and we’re moving painfully slowly compared with the UK. They seem to be sticking to the 21 or 28-day gaps but only about 10% of residents in my state have received at least one jab.

One big difference is that more essential workers such as teachers are high-priority....my son’s teachers received their second jab this week.

Yes.

I'm in frontline healthcare. I had my second Pfizer yesterday at 9 weeks. My partner aged 62 is getting his on Monday which having read emails about the Pfizer vaccine supply at work this morning I'm surprised and delighted!
Apparently supply of Pfizer is dipping for a bit whilst they get their production working more efficiently but will ramp up in April when we will be doing a lot of 2nd doses so the hubs are working at quite low capacity.
My practice vaccinated 700 people over a 3 week period. It's quite something

@pinkhappy

Hell yes . To be fair to the critics, it was a gamble when they made the decision but the scientific evidence since has 100% supported it. You might call it a very lucky guess.

More like an educated guess, taking into account what we know about vaccines generally. So some luck involved, yes but not a completely wild random guess.

@BlueTimes

Yes, I do agree with it.

Even if 24% had had both vaccines, they still wouldn’t be 100% protected. In your eyes surely the 24% would still only be partially vaccinated since we don’t have a vaccine that is 100% effective.

I thought the same. Nobody will ever be 100% vaccinated. The flu jab is usually 40-60% effective. Would you say someone who had the flu jab is "partially vaccinated"?

My niggle is I'm 63 working in non-health front line role. Required to be in the same room all day with as many as 30 people. I'm in priority group 7 and haven't had a jab. Priority group 6, the CV 16-64 year olds (7 million of them) are ahead of me. OK that's what the statistics say is best. BUT my Ex-h who WFH has liver disease (cirrhosis - still a drinker! ) he had his jab yesterday.