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Original poster

Has anybody managed to get Pfizer instead of astra zeneca?

429 replies

Crovine · 29/04/2021 19:15

If so, please share strategies.

I have a number of issues including sibling medical history that have led me to not want astra zeneca. None of these are on the list of official reasons to avoid it. But I don't want it. I went to my vaccination appointment today and explained this. They said I could have astra zeneca and that it was safe. They said they would not offer Pfizer (which people six feet away were having) because all the doses were allocated. I was advised to get a letter from my GP. However it was my GP who told me to go to the appointment and discuss at the centre. So I left without being vaccinated.

It seems like an impasse.

Has anybody managed to find a way through this?

OP posts:
Lucidas · 29/04/2021 21:42

I got a first dose Pfizer partly because so many people had missed their appointments for second doses...

Foosterin · 29/04/2021 21:42

Right now most people probably would have Pfizer or Moderna given the choice. But if you book a vaccine you do it on the basis that you will take the vaccine you're offered on the day. If you're not prepared to do that, don't book at all.

WednesburyPrinciple · 29/04/2021 21:43

A previous poster mentioned the research that shows abdominal clots (PVT) with similar fatality rate to cerebral ones are apparently 30 x more frequent with Pfizer than AZ. That came out in the Oxford research paper that came out a week or so ago showed risk of clots much higher with Covid than vaccines. Not much being reported on that. And reports of heart inflammation in young men in Israel after Pfizer. All very rare adverse effects but no-one freaking out about Pfizer. Can’t help thinking there’s been an effective campaign against AZ. Shame as in India (where even doctors were refusing the jab a couple of months ago) they are literally begging for any vaccine they can get their hands on.

Mum2jenny · 29/04/2021 21:46

I actively chose to get the Astra Zeneca vaccine so I went to a centre that was only overing that vaccine. The other hospital in the area was doing the Pfizer one, which I didn’t want.

IamMummyhearmeROAR · 29/04/2021 21:47

@Doidontimmm

I got Pfizer on Monday as a first jab - Scotland.
Me too in Scotland on Wednesday.
Shrivelled · 29/04/2021 21:48

@phodopus yes OP’s reasoning is a joke. There is no doubt there has been a link to very rare blood clots. But the OP saying she has a risk of getting a blood clot therefore she’s refusing the AZ vaccine is a joke. If she wants to refuse the vaccine because she’s anxious about what she’s heard in the news and she’s anxious about trusting the vaccine then that’s fine. But there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that anyone with a risk of blood clots has an increased risk of getting a CVST clot.

Marmalade3 · 29/04/2021 21:50

@EmmaOvary

You're more likely to get run over going to all these needless repeat appointments than developing a clot from the AZ vaccine.
So, so true!
Original poster
Crovine · 29/04/2021 21:55

Well I was more likely to get covid and die from it at the point where the NHS was refusing to admit and treat people who had it while I was going to work on the bus every bastard day so I've already been living a high risk life thanks to our country's systemic failure to deal with this thing so I don't want to take on any further risk.

OP posts:
nether · 29/04/2021 21:56

I thought we did not know what were the risk factors for this particular type of clot

But GPs can assign people as Pfizer only on medical grounds, so that is the route to pursue.

Just remember that there is a wait for Pfizer, even when GP has agreed and hub acknowledged, for they have to wait for supply to be available for even priority first doses. Wwe've been waiting over 3 weeks from GP approving it, and don't know how much longer - and this is a high priority to protect CEV person, so I suspect it could be much longer if your prioritisation is by age rather than medical reasons

Totalbeach · 29/04/2021 21:57

@Crovine

Well I was more likely to get covid and die from it at the point where the NHS was refusing to admit and treat people who had it while I was going to work on the bus every bastard day so I've already been living a high risk life thanks to our country's systemic failure to deal with this thing so I don't want to take on any further risk.
Good point. People have short memories.
Herein98 · 29/04/2021 21:59

Haven’t read the full thread but from what I have seen people are being disgustingly rude to the OP. I think what she’s asking is a perfectly reasonable thing to consider; she’s got her own reason to feel wary of the AZ vaccine.

How are we at a point where we think it’s ok to order people not to query which vaccine they might receive when we now KNOW there is an association with blood clots (however rare) with the AZ and some people will have clinical risk factors for that and understandably want the other vaccine!

The fact that her GP hasn’t yet identified her as someone that needs a letter backing her up is neither here nor there - GPs know hardly anything about it at this point, everybody is trying to work it out as they go along.

Shrivelled · 29/04/2021 22:03

Fine to have a choice. Not fine to turn up to a vaccine appointment and refuse it when others are desperately waiting to have theirs and the tax payers money is being wasted when these vaccines go in the bin. That’s why OP is getting a hard time.

Original poster
Crovine · 29/04/2021 22:05

Yeahbut I don't have a choice.

OP posts:
Tistheseason17 · 29/04/2021 22:09

Latest messaging is that 1st dose deliveries are dropping.
Take what you can get.
Pfizer and Moderna will be prioritised for under 30s, and pregnant.

If you have no clinical reason then take what is offered - Covid is a killer. It's NHS not private.

Theforest · 29/04/2021 22:10

Israel is investigating heart issues relating to Pfizer. They don't know if related but goes to show possible risks to any vaccine.

I was prepared for any vaccine to get life back. Who knows what risks Pfizer, moderna or any others holds. I bet hardly anyone reads the rare side effects to medication they are normally prescribed.

Original poster
Crovine · 29/04/2021 22:11

Ok so can I opt out of paying tax into the NHS then? Ffs.

OP posts:
EileenGC · 29/04/2021 22:13

I've already been living a high risk life thanks to our country's systemic failure to deal with this thing

Ok I’ve been with you throughout this thread but you have to calm down. A lot of us have been living a ‘high risk life’ and getting on buses this year, it doesn’t entitle us to any special treatment now. I don’t understand how you would’ve wanted ‘the government’ to keep the buses you use Covid-free. As if it was that easy.

Your high risk life is now coming to an end anyway due to the low level of infections in the UK. If you’ve been okay so far, chances are you can go a few more months until your preferred vaccine is available. The country, the NHS and the government don’t owe you the vaccine you like, simply because you got on a bus for a year.

Wait for the vaccine quietly, or move somewhere where they’ll give you what you want, earlier. Each country has come up with a vaccination system and priority plan that they think is best for their population. They’re all trying their best here.

For reference, even in countries where a choice of vaccine is available, it has been made very clear this won’t happen overnight and people will need to wait. So we’re all patiently waiting until they announce ‘now X vaccine is being offered to everyone, please come forward’. Until then, it’s keeping quiet and getting on with life. I don’t have time and energy to get so worked up about this.

marthamydear · 29/04/2021 22:15

I politely asked at vaccination centre for Pfizer as I had concerns about AZ and risk of DVT and used heparin throughout pregnancy (sticky blood) and I was told to wait and they took my mobile number and I was asked to return this week and had the Pfizer jab on Tuesday. It was short notice text to say can you come that day and I said yes.

I think if you are polite and you are able to wait (I was and didn't know when I would be offered the Pfizer) but I was surprised it was just 3 days later. At short notice. Maybe try and see if they'll accommodate you in this way? Good luck!

SerenadeOfTheSchoolRun · 29/04/2021 22:16

I don’t know if this would work but if I was determined to have Pfizer or Moderna I would wait until the under 30s were being called in large numbers and book alongside them. Although It may be that they would fit the over 30s in with the second Astra Zeneca vaccines. Some large hubs don’t have the freezers for the RNA vaccines. Maybe if you know anyone of that age you could try booking at the same time as them and go to the same place as they wouldn’t be offered somewhere that only had Astra Zeneca on that day. This would probably only work on the national booking system and of course would mean that you had to wait for a few weeks putting you at arguably higher risk from Covid than you would be from the Astra Zeneca vaccine.

I had Astra Zeneca and was grateful but can understand where you are coming from especially with the numbers coming down now (in no small part due to lots of other people accepting the Astra Zeneca vaccine)

chinateapot · 29/04/2021 22:17

At the moment your choice is whichever vaccine you’re offered on the day - which will very likely be Astra Zeneca - or no vaccine. That is a choice. It isn’t the choice you want, but it’s the choice on offer.

Most of the risk factors that make people more vulnerable to blood clots (eg family history of DVT, heart attack etc) don’t make you more vulnerable to the kind of clot associated with AZ. Only if you’ve had autoimmune thrombocytopenia or a couple of rare clotting disorders. The pathway for forming these blood clots is totally different. More info here www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/news/coronavirus-and-your-health/astrazeneca-covid-vaccine

The risk of clots from covid is much much greater than the risk of clots from the vaccine www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1005

So - it is obviously your choice whether or not to have a treatment offered to you by the NHS. But you can’t demand a different one. Especially not a different one that is much more expensive and in short supply - because if it worked like that then we’d be deciding treatment based on want rather than need and less vocal people would do really badly out of that.

marthamydear · 29/04/2021 22:18

Jumbled message there, sorry. I am in home counties, just outside London.

Moondust001 · 29/04/2021 22:20

@Crovine

Ok so can I opt out of paying tax into the NHS then? Ffs.
You don't pay tax to the NHS. You pay tax to the government. What they spend it in is up to them. The NHS, wallpaper, whatever...

If you do not wish to use the NHS, you are entitled not to. But=y private health insurance, wait for vaccines to be available via them and you can choose. In the meantime, make sure the cover includes lengthy stays in hospital intensive care units, just in case you need it.

Original poster
Crovine · 29/04/2021 22:20

I mean I've already paid for this fucking paternalistic shit. I've already funded the health service that left my brother to die, not because of lack of capacity, but because the NHS weren't admitting covid patients unless they needed ventilation. I've paid all my tax money into a system that killed my brother while the broader policies of our government meant that I was catching a bus to work, bereaved, at a point where a disease that was killing 1800 a day was running rampant due to policy failures. I'm more than willing to have a vaccine because I don't want to die. But I'm fucking done with acquiescing to every fucking thing our shitty not fit for purpose government run healthcare system throws at me. Give me that lovely vaccine. The one that I want. I've had a hell of a fucking year.

OP posts:
EmmaGrundyForPM · 29/04/2021 22:20

@frozendaisy

Yeah keep booking until they give you what you want, or you take what they have, or you give up.
please don't do this. I volunteer at a vaccine centre and we try to ensure we use every dose. If you are booked for. AZ and then don't take it, we have to try to find someone to have it instead.
Shrivelled · 29/04/2021 22:20

I really hope you’re not going to book and waste another vaccine slot. Wait until you can get confirmation that you can choose the vaccine you want (if that ever happens). That’s the choice you have.

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