Can the 40-49 age group now book their vaccine?

[Summergirl76]

Sister’s boyfriend (43) was able today to book his vaccine by entering his details on the national booking site (he is Derby based). Sister late 30s tried too but it said she was not eligible. Her husband tried last week and was also not eligible. Just wondered if anyone else has tried in the 40s age group and been able to book?

@Rosehip10

And yes, "the unpaid carer" option online with no checks etc at the mass hubs has led to large amounts of people taking the piss - this is why the option has been removed and said unpaid carers need to go via GPs...

It would have been better to officially open up to 45-40 and 40-45 weeks ago. Clearly there was the capacity if all these people claiming to be carers in March and April could be vaccinated.

At least then the people getting the vaccines would have been the oldest of those not in the top 9 groups rather than people in their 30s.

Nearly all proper carers came forward to their GPs in Jan and Feb, although not all GPs followed the proper procedures for registering them and blocked their vaccines, but hopefully that affected a minority of real unpaid carers.

BunsyGirl that is awful - I am so sorry to hear that and makes it all the more galling when healthy 20 and 30 year olds have already been vaccinated when you haven’t.

@ChloeDecker Thank you. I have been really patient but it’s wearing thin now!

Yes, I'm 46 and had mine at the weekend, in Derbyshire

@Lalalablahblahblah They do but different GP practices interpret them as they see fit. Some are saying that the hospitalisation must be within the previous two years.

BunsyGirl - I'm in a similar boat and feel pretty impatient about the whole thing. Fed up with hearing that well controlled asthmatics are not considered increased risk. My asthma isn't well controlled, but the GP is not doing asthma reviews so they wouldn't know that.

I've tried to get myself a 'spare' vaccine dose but there is a 'list' for that in my area too and I'm ineligible to go on it because I'm a private sector employee not public sector (presumably to get teachers/police done).

BunsyGirl - you should definitely be Group 6.

@landofgiants My asthma check up this year was a text message questionnaire from the nurse. I confirmed that my asthma was not controlled around the time of my periods but there was no follow up. Just the re-issue of my repeat prescription for the next 12 months.

I’m 42, no underlying health issues. Got a message from my GP to book an appointment next Saturday.

Husband is 34, no health issues he knows of. He was invited early March, on the basis that he is vulnerable. We still don’t know what makes them think that he has underlying health issues. GP wouldn’t comment.

I think it’s just luck.

After reading this I tried to book via website for myself and dh (47 and 48) just to see. We both come up as "cannot find your details on our system"
I don't know if that's because we aren't yet eligible or if our details haven't been passed on properly.

Has anyone else had this message?

@Fettyheather

After reading this I tried to book via website for myself and dh (47 and 48) just to see. We both come up as "cannot find your details on our system" I don't know if that's because we aren't yet eligible or if our details haven't been passed on properly.

Has anyone else had this message?

No. Ive been getting a message saying Im not eligible to book. Have you input the correct version of your name registered with your GP? ie not a shortened version of your name.

Thanks user. Yes put in correct names.
I will try again tomorrow.

I think it’s just luck.

It really shouldn’t be about luck though.

@AugmentedToast

I’m 42, no underlying health issues. Got a message from my GP to book an appointment next Saturday.

Husband is 34, no health issues he knows of. He was invited early March, on the basis that he is vulnerable. We still don’t know what makes them think that he has underlying health issues. GP wouldn’t comment.

I think it’s just luck.

It’s not luck. If your husband isn’t eligible for the vaccine and he was offered through some sort of administrative error it’s dreadful. Did he take it?

A healthy person in his thirties should not be able to jump the queue.

P

I would just say that if someone is offered the vaccine, they are not a queue jumper.

Lots of people were offered the jab as part of Group 6 of all ages. Many had no idea what their underlying g medical condition was and still don’t. Lots asked and their GP surgery wasn’t able to tell them and it was an algorithm that added many to the later shielding list rather than GPs themselves.

Lots of people were told when they enquired that the surgery had no idea and stressed they were not queue jumpers but that the right thing to do was to take the jab if offered and there was a good reason. To be honest, investigating the reason, using GP time, getting back to the patient to have the discussion etc all would have taken far more resources than just booking the jab and getting on with it.

Will errors have been made by the system? Yes. When giving 53m jabs x2 some people will have been offered sooner than they should and some later. It’s unavoidable and the relatively small numbers of errors are honestly not worth getting knickers in a twist over and when people do, they are not seeing the wood for the trees. It all has to be about a whizzing through process rather than a precise queue where every single person in the country has a perfect spot and the queue cannot advance until the person before them has had it.

Telling people who were offered it and who took it, even when they did not fully understand why they had been offered it, that they are queue jumpers is really unhelpful. Lots of people who were offered have turned it down because they didn’t understand why they were offered. They were so keen to not be queue jumpers and afraid of being accused of being such that they turned it down ...and most of them will have been correctly categorised and were more vulnerable.

So I think we need to butt out of commenting on whether individuals who have been offered in the early stages ‘deserve’ it or not. As long as people do not lie to get the vaccine (and clearly some did say they were unpaid carers who were not...that loophole is now closed and those not registered as carers have to go via GP system and not tnational system) then we have to accept that if the system made them eligible then they were. And what we need is that those who are eligible get on and books as quickly as possible so the queue can keep moving. Lots of querying if eligibility is actually one of the things that holds it up and stops younger people being done sooner.

At this point now, close to the end of 15 April, it does seem more random as to whether under 50s are being offered or not. With the limited supply at the moment, they’ve officially said phase 2 isn’t opening yet, and advice to GPs and other vaccine providers is to not give it to under 50s but to use it to being 2nd jabs in sooner. Last week, that wasn’t being followed in all areas and we will see if it is this week.

Good news reports this morning though, that Moderna should be no wing used by 3rd week this month. That’s now only 2 weeks away and if there’s enough for further rollout, will be 40s as it cannot be given as 2nd doses to those who had a different jab. Just depends how much there is really.

Hope everyone waiting gets it soon and also knows there is no conspiracy against them and that the delay is very short lived.

Again, though Wombat, all easier to say when you have already had the jab.

Thank you @daisiesinmay and @User27aw

I can't book yet. I'm 41.

I am with Wombat. I am in my 40s, have not had a jab and I am aware of real risks for my age group. They are low (even after you consider potential impact of "long Covid").

I am not going to get agitated over healthy 20-30 year olds getting jabs in error. If they got invited - fair enough. There will always be mistakes and it will take longer to sort them out than to simply move ahead with vaccinations.

Yes, you may argue that it should not be down to luck - but let us face it - everyone living in the developed world with priority access to vaccines is already very lucky.

Chloe, do you think I should stop contributing to the vaccine threads because I’ve had the jab?

As I’ve said, I’m following with interest and will do so right until the end of the process.

I think a. Umber if people have found the information I’ve shared useful. And I think it is perfectly possible to empathise and comment with people who have had the jab or not had the jab. Even a week ago, my DH was still waiting for his jab and watching out anxiously for the text (which incidentally never came...and he was fortunate enough to get the last dose at the end of a day) and I assure you, that our understanding and empathy for those in their 40s still waiting has not changed at all. Some people are purely interested for themselves and once they have had the jab don’t follow the story any more. That’s fine. But I am genuinely interested in the vaccine progress and story, and the whole process of delivering it and the behavioural science behind the rollout and processes to boost uptake and manage supply.

I will be really pleased for you when you come onto MN and tell us you’ve been invited. And I will keep following it down through 30s and 20s too and the twists and turns of supply, comms, and onward to the boosters too.

I fully understand how frustrating it is for 40s still waiting. I know it feels like it’s been months of being on the brink of receiving it. I know it feels like a postcode lottery and as if all the younger people are getting it. Being able to see all that and also have a slightly larger perspective in it all too doesn’t just come down to having had the jab and so not understanding what it’s like. I’ve been posting about the vaccine rollout since the early part of the year and long before the jab was anywhere near reaching me. And my perspective hasn’t changed. I look at it all from the bigger picture rollout and need for speed and efficiency and have also always tried to see it from the personal perspective of waiting and hoping for the jab too. I think both are possible. Lots of people can get a little bit of tunnel vision (and I understand that too) and actually say that when they see things put into the wider perspective, it helps them deal with it a bit more. I really think that having some sense of the government approach and how supply impacts decisions can make waiting just that tiny bit more tolerable. And being on these threads and getting snippets of info often helps people too (or sometimes too much info drives them demented and they decide to just withdraw from it for a while...totally fair enough) as they feel information gives them some kind of sense of understanding or control, even if just a very little bit.

Anyway, I post out if interest for myself and I do think I’ve sometimes helped others. I’m sorry if you don’t find it useful or annoying given that as you say, I have had my jab.

Chloe, do you think I should stop contributing to the vaccine threads because I’ve had the jab?

No. And I like a lot of what you say. But I do think some of your comments are easy to say if you have already had the jab and hard for some of us who are still waiting, to read, knowing you have already been vaccinated.

For example, It’s unavoidable and the relatively small numbers of errors are honestly not worth getting knickers in a twist over and when people do, they are not seeing the wood for the trees

and Nuance to reflect different age distributions or speed or getting through can’t always be built in and if they tried to would slow the system down. We have to accept that there isn’t a perfect queue by age and prior out and people don’t all get done in the exact order.
and That’s why it’s hard for us to understand why certain things are happening and some of it seems frustrating.
and For us an individuals just thinking about wanting it done ASAP, plus for individual vaccine providers who have lots of volunteers and a zeal to jab as many people as possible and keep rolling out, it’s hard if not impossible to see the bigger picture. and sorry if this is in bad faith but from you other thread, that in a few months time, no one will remember how long it took to get vaccinated.

Please feel free to keep saying these things but also to maybe hear that many don’t think this way.

Thanks for replying Chloe.

Yes, I fully understand that for some people, especially as time passes, they have a strong sense of the vaccination process being unfair, random and they are the losers within the system. Perhaps reading these threads where people under 50 and under 40 and even under 30 come on and say they were jabbed 2 weeks ago, makes it feel that almost everywhere else in the country has rolled out to under 50s and of course that feels unfair, especially with no communication about timescales for the next rollout.

Yes, in a previous post I have said that in a few months, I don’t think most people will remember if they had their jab the last week in March or the 2nd week in April (ie within 3 or 4 weeks) and I do think the memory of this early phase of vaccine will be what a remarkable achievement it was to deliver about 30m jabs in about 3 months.I do think that timescale feels so important when you’re in it, but later ceases to be so important. But perhaps it is just me that thinks this and most people will feel as you do. And of course, you’re still waiting. You may well be right and both you and other people who end up waiting longer and don’t get jabbed until later this month or perhaps in May, will look back on what’s happened as an example of very poor planning and rollout, and that will be their overall view of the process.

I fully accept people have different views and that for many, only their personal experience will be relevant in shaping their view of what’s happened.

Hope you get the invite really soon.

Wombat - thank you for your balanced posts. I agree with you, but on a personal level I am frustrated about my lack of vaccine. When we have spent a year being told how 'vulnerable' we are, it is easy to lose your sense of perspective!

Not in Scotland they can't. They're still doing over 50s.

In fact, Scottish people aren't allowed online booking at all. We have to wait for Saint Nicola of Covid to grant us an appointment.

Land of giants, fully understand. I think lots feel like you do and it’s totally understandable. You’re so right that being in the middle of things makes having perspective difficult. It’s much easier when you can step back from things and often those struggling with perspective know that given a few months, they will gain the space and perspective that they struggle with now.

Let’s hope it’s not long now for those feeling left behind and the jab and sense of feeling positive and not in tunnel come soon. I think more communication from government generally would help people. Since Christmas we all had a sense of the whole programme moving forward and the next cohort always being round a corner that we could see. I think it’s the halting of official rollout and no real sense of timescale which is so frustrating for people. Even though we know government has limited supply and doesn’t want to make promises it then has to renege on, the open-ended nature of it is very hard. And it wouldn’t feel so bad if the rollout to under 40s had genuinely halted for all under 50s, but the seeming arbitrary nature of it, is what upsets people.

I think that when the government has uncertainty over supply, or anything Covid related, they’ve learned from bitter experience to say less and not more. They’ve found it better to under-promise and over-deliver rather than the other way round. They’ve found keeping quiet and then pulling a hat out of a rabbit works better than promising the earth.

I’d imagine we won’t hear many more timescales about vaccine than the very open needed 31 July for all over 18s. It gives flexibility to push forward if supply allows or move fast then slow and fast again or vice versa depending on supply and still get to the end point. I don’t think we will see the Telegraph reports like we saw around 12 March suggesting all over 40s to be offered by Easter...(which weren’t official government reports, the government will be relieved not to be responsible for) or pinning down interim targets, because we’ve all grasped now just how erratic supply can be and a bit push forward doesn’t always continue unabated.