[quote Baileysforchristmas]@GibbsGibbsGibbs if you are in Germany can you tell me how true the below article is?
Especially this bit
Without using GPs, each German state has had to build its own system for finding the right people in the right age groups for a jab appointment, with some inviting patients by letter, while others rely on being contacted via overburdened hotlines and creaky online portals. In Lower Saxony, authorities used post office records to seek out candidates for the first round of jabs, guessing people’s ages on the basis of their first names.
www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/27/heroes-to-zeros-how-german-efficiency-wrecked-its-covid-vaccine-drive[/quote]
About this silly story about using names: I still don't understand how or why that happened, I think it was mostly due to some overzealous people misinterpreting the GDPR. In my home region letters were sent using address and age data from the population register, I don't see why that shouldn't have been possible elsewhere.
However, those letters were purely for information purposes and not a requirement to get a vaccine. The criteria for the different priority groups were clearly published and anybody in the corresponding group (at that time only the highest) was/is free to make an appointment.
However, there is another part of this article I think you should take note of because it's definitely true:
Contrary to some speculation in Britain, Merkel’s decision to heed the regulator’s advice had little to do with attempts to politicise the vaccine developed in Oxford University. Rather, it was the opposite: an affirmation of the belief that a cut-no-corners bureaucratic management culture can still win out against the virus.
Just because other European countries do things differently, it's not all directed against the UK!