Furries.....very good post. Very balanced. I feel the same way. Disappointed late 40s, because it really has been trumpeted for the last couple of weeks that 40s would be offered starting to be done in March and most done by Easter.
Those saying ‘it was always July’ and ‘we are doing better than rest of world’ and ‘lots of over 50s aren’t done yet’.....that can all be true AND it can be true that the rollout was moving at once and government and the media said it would be going to 40s imminently.,....and not it’s not. People are allowed to be disappointed.
These things are nuanced aren’t they. It doesn’t have to be that only one thing is true...it can be true that we can be pleased that 25m have been done, we are doing well in world terms and that some of the earlier priority grouos remain to be done (that will be the case until the end of the vaccination period....they will always be following up those who didn’t or couldn’t respond to the their letter or the website invitation....some people need multiple invites or special help to get vaccinated such as home visits and it all takes time. People forget that there is no need to cease further rollout when supply is good, but there can be ‘mop up’ alongside rollout to younger groups) and have a sense of disappointment that something which was being hailed as imminent no longer is.
I guess some of the reaction depends on how closely people have followed all this. Still some have no idea at all where we are in the vaccine programme. Lots imagine it is still over 70s and younger groups are far off still. When they hear 40s won’t be jabbed in April, they can’t see what the fuss is about. But others have tracked the jab count every day, they have followed the national booking site as it opens up to more age groups and followed threads like this, where people around the country update on who is getting the jab at the moment. And they’ve read the media too.....and all of this absolutely supported the idea that 40s would start to be offered the jab in the next week....and in fact in lots if areas, have been already. So no wonder there is disappointment. It felt quite accuse on Wednesday when Hancock announced it and seemed to skim over the significant change in timescale for 40s.
And 24 hours later, those who have been following are getting used to the new idea. Yes, we can start to balance the idea that the country is doing well with 25m and that yes the 40s will be next when rollout expands, albeit perhaps 6 weeks later than hoped. Still hard for those who had to go back into the classroom and see over 100 kids a day and who have health conditions which didn’t quite qualify for group 6 and were hanging into the idea they’d be done before returning to school after Easter. And hard for those with health anxiety...and there are many. Doesn’t really matter if the risks are lower, they still feel them and of course the risk to a 49 year old now waiting another 6 weeks isn’t actually less than the risk to the 50 year old who will have had the jab, who was born a few weeks earlier. We all know there have to be cut offs, but it feels hard.
But people are adjusting and remembering deaths and hospitalisation are down, cases have reduced and more people being vaccinated helps and they will get the jab in a few weeks.
All these things are true at the same time. People who say no-one should be disappointed, or those who say it is a travesty and makes the whole vaccine programme a disaster are both wrong. There is still major success and it is okay to feel disappointed when something that felt so important and so close is suddenly and unexpectedly delayed by 6 weeks.