16.8 million people vaccinated already - brilliant!

[buttery81]

This is a continuation of the previous thread, www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4155962-10-million-people-vaccinated-already-brilliant

This thread is intended as a positive place to discuss 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 or anything else along those lines - this is probably not the thread for you.

So, to pick up from where we left off... a mind-blowing 16,875,536 people in the UK have now received their first dose of the vaccine - that’s 32% (or 1 in every 3.1) of all UK adults.

Every day, hundreds of thousands more people are gaining excellent levels of protection against this sodding virus. So, let’s keep jab jab jabbing our way onwards, upwards and out of this. Covid, we’re coming for ya!!!

@OhYouBadBadKitten

I'm a bit worried about my second jab, due mid April. It was through a gp led centre so I don't have my second appointment yet.

I did mine via gp and I’ve been able to book it in the national system

I'd really urge care doing this:

I did mine via gp and I’ve been able to book it in the national system

Obviously you may well be comfortable that you have got the same vaccine booked etc but if you had a pfizer first dose you must have a pfizer second.

Second dose supplies are guaranteed but the exact day of delivery comes late so surgeries may not have booked appointments yet. This doesn't mean you won't get one, it just means they haven't call you yet.

The AstraZeneca vaccine isn't only made in the UK; their Novasep production plant in Belgium was being castigated in the EU really quite recently for not producing as much vaccine as was wanted there, and some at least of the vaccine we have been using here came from the Serum Institute of India -- it's being made there under a different name, Covishield, for use in India.

Early AZ doses were from Belgium, most of the ones we've used so far are from the UK but we've just had a delivery from India. Maybe there have been issues at that factory. I doubt that it will be serious enough to mean that targets get missed though, the April 15th target should still be easily achieved.

I doubt that it will be serious enough to mean that targets get missed though, the April 15th target should still be easily achieved.

I hope so @DdraigGoch. This news does seem to have come out of the blue somewhat! All we can do is stay positive and continue watching the numbers rise and rise this week. Tomorrow should be another good day, with hundreds of thousands more people significantly more protected by the end of it. That’s still something to celebrate.

25 million is such a fantastic number, such a shame to hear of a slowdown though

Yes, it’s a shame that 25 million and all of group 9 being eligible to book is overshadowed by the news that the continued roll-out is essentially totally halted for about 6 weeks. No under 50s are to be booked from today or before the end of April. It’s a major stalling of the system. And no real explanation for why, as both vaccine companies say their supplies to Uk are as expected.

@WombatChocolate

Yes, it’s a shame that 25 million and all of group 9 being eligible to book is overshadowed by the news that the continued roll-out is essentially totally halted for about 6 weeks. No under 50s are to be booked from today or before the end of April. It’s a major stalling of the system. And no real explanation for why, as both vaccine companies say their supplies to Uk are as expected.

I’ve read is because problems with batches abroad and getting fewer than expected (I believe it’s both from India)

Dm

And Downing Street insisted that any potential shortages would not derail Mr Johnson’s roadmap for easing the lockdown.

Sorry wrong paragraph
They suggested there was an issue with AstraZeneca’s production overseas, resulting in fewer jabs being delivered in April than initially planned. Last night it was also claimed there were shortages related to the late delivery of five million doses of the AstraZeneca jab being manufactured in India.

@EasterIssland

Sorry wrong paragraph They suggested there was an issue with AstraZeneca’s production overseas, resulting in fewer jabs being delivered in April than initially planned. Last night it was also claimed there were shortages related to the late delivery of five million doses of the AstraZeneca jab being manufactured in India.

Ok that makes sense of some other things I have been reading.

Thank you

It would help if they gave that info about supplies.
And it would help if they were honest about supply issues resulting Tina need for a step change....ie halting the rollout to a new age cohort altogether, rather than trying to suggest there was no change.

People can understand if there’s a major supply issue.
People can understand if supply is severely compromised that the 2nd doses must happen and the smallish numbers if remaining vulnerable must have it. They could understand if that means the next age group have to wait and there has to be halt to roll out to new age groups. But they have to say it.....seriously limited supply means halt to roll out to new groups, rather than pretending that that next age group were never in-line for it following the previous age group.

Agree

They need to either be totally transparent about all thing vaccination. To help the public understand and not worry or just crack on and don't actually give figures or talk about the roll out. To stop all the EU hassle for being ahead. The current way they do things is the worst of both worlds communication wise

Twitter suggests the issue is a delay to a large consignment from India. Fair enough.
If true I just don’t understand why MH wouldn’t say this rather than brushing aside - we’d all understand. The media are getting in a frenzy about it being an issue with the EU -or perhaps the government wants us to believe we can somehow blame the EU

Last week I think testing was up by 73% or something from the week before. All those school kids being done. So cases are being found that wouldn't have been before. That will continue with more school testing this week. Then home testing after. Cases is really hard to judge for now. Some said to knock around 1000 off the daily total to account for extra testing 🤷‍♀️
The positivity rate is a good way of establishing whether this is because we are catching many hitherto undetected cases or if there really is an increase in actual infections. The UK's positivity rate is one of the lowest in Europe which means that we are just testing lots of cases which the Europeans aren't identifying.

I refuse to be downcast, groups 1-9 (99% of potential deaths) will still be done ahead of the April 15th deadline. The speed of unlocking shouldn't be affected because that's based on when over-18s are expected to be jabbed and that's well after the revised delivery date with plenty of time for vaccinators to catch up.

It's annoying for those in the over-40s category but remember that your risks are far lower than those already done were and that it won't actually impact the speed of unlocking.

Im not sure whether there is a massive supply issue to the UK .. I think its more of a case of being seen to be politically correct given overall shortage of supply eg not seen to be applying vaccine nationalism. It was quite apparent the message was it's OK to vaccinate anyone in groups 1-9 but the UK needs to be seen to be looking at a wider world needs picture (far easier to say supply issues rather than we can't be seen to be looking after No1).

I refuse to be downcast, groups 1-9 (99% of potential deaths) will still be done ahead of the April 15th deadline.

Exactly DDraig.

I’m sure I remember people on Mumsnet and Twitter saying the government’s mid April target for groups 1-9 wasn’t particularly ambitious when it was announced, given the pace we were jabbing at the time. But they always warned supplies would be ‘lumpy’ and now it seems they were right to give that mid April deadline. I think we just got excited because we were storming ahead by so much, but we’re still on track to meet the deadline and that is the most important thing. Groups 1-9 jabbed by mid April is still a fantastic achievement - that’s 32 million people (60% of all UK adults)!

I’m looking forward to today’s numbers as ever. 26.5 million (the halfway point for 1st jabs) is my next target!

I'm sad for my friends who are in their 40s. They are so disappointed. Overall though I thing it's ok, it's a bit slower than were were hoping for, but we are still firmly marching in the right direction.

@OhYouBadBadKitten

I'm sad for my friends who are in their 40s. They are so disappointed. Overall though I thing it's ok, it's a bit slower than were were hoping for, but we are still firmly marching in the right direction.

I’m quite upset and I’ve had the vaccine but not my dh. My husband being fully vaccinated would have saved us few ££s in the coming months and also knowing that he’d be safe. I’m Spanish and haven’t seen my family since 2019. I was planning in July to visit my family (who might or might not be vaccinated ) if we now wait til he’s fully vaccinated it won’t be until October when we can go ... which would be nearly 2 years since I’d have seen my family. It’s not the end of the world but in the uk I only have my husband and son ... so a familiar hug would mend my mental health for a while. I know it’s not end of world ... I’ve decided to go in July when he’d be at least have received one of the vaccines. And pay for his pcr , we can afford it and it’ll be worth it when I can hug my nephew again.

I know each of us have got a reason for wanting the vaccine , but this is mine to be upset today, I feel we’re on a road and the clear skies come and you’re happy but then you enter a tunnel and then another one longer and another one , and feel I can’t reach those clear skies again cuz there are tunnels blocking you.

Sorry for being negative today. I’ll be really happy now seeing 2nd doses increasing as I’ve been in the last few weeks

EasterIssland you have every right to feel sad and disappointed. It must be a real blow.

@EasterIssland sorry if I’m wrong, but is there any chance your DH might get vaccinated in May with a second dose in late July? You could then go and visit your family end of July or early August? Hope you get to see them soon

[quote buttery81]@EasterIssland sorry if I’m wrong, but is there any chance your DH might get vaccinated in May with a second dose in late July? You could then go and visit your family end of July or early August? Hope you get to see them soon [/quote]
it'd be early may > early august the soonest It could happen I think (I'm just doing quickly +3 months in my mind) , also some countries are requesting that at least you've had 1-2 weeks since the second vaccine ... I've got days booked for another holiday in September so company would refuse to give me 1 month in one go.
Also despite I'm in an area no British want to go on holidays (so not malaga/allicante/canaries) the flights are damm expensive, I tend to pay 200 but it's looking like 500 for end of July/august...

Just feeling sorry fr my family, they keep telling me how they're looking forward to seeing my son and this made me quite upset yesterday. But as said not end of world comparing to what other people are going through I guess..

Hope the 2nd vaccine numbers quickly go up!

ps. and hope EMA gives good news today for EU countries, as that would mean my family might get their vaccines at some point soonish so would feel secure traveling even if my husband would only have had 1 jab

Sorry @EasterIssland

I read that all over 50s will be offered the jab by the end of March. If they’re not going to start on the over 40s until May, what is going to happen in April? Will we solely be focusing on those people in groups 1-9 who haven’t yet had the jab and also giving second doses?

I imagine many of those who haven’t had the jab in the top 9 groups will be those who are very hard to reach or those who just don’t want it for whatever reason. I wonder how many people in the top 9 groups still haven’t had a 1st dose?