Iwant, it’s likely that the centre offering jabs close to home is offering only 2nd doses. Most GP services are doing that now. Many haven’t registered to do the 2nd phase of 1st jabs and they didn’t have to, because in this phase it’s not so key to have local centres absolutely everywhere. They will be involved in the follow-up of those who don’t book. Some of that follow-up is likely to be encouraging people to book at the national centres rather than immediately offering local jabs...simply because they don’t have the supplies or won’t be running specific clinics for 1st doses. It’s likely some will use spares from their 2nd dose clinics for anyone who really cannot travel.
I guess it’s all part if the overall planning and picture. Whilst on one hand it’s really important that people keep being offered the jab as eventually get it locally, if that really is the only way, at the same time, with people being younger, if they have to wait a bit longer for it to reach them locally, it’s not as desperate as it would have been in terms of 80 year olds having the longer wait. And of course 2nd jabs simply cannot wait beyond 12 weeks and must be prioritised.
Again, it’s all about balancing all the competing demands for speed, efficiency, 1st and 2nd jabs both needing to be offered, the fact some age groups can only have certain jabs, and supply not being as high as they would like. No one demand can be allowed to derail other elements of the programme. And the difficulty is that the overall plan I g is very complex and people cannot know the full picture precisely because it’s so complex. So some people just look at their own situation or those of a group of their friends or contacts and feel annoyed that the age rollout is too slow, or that too long is being spent following up the hesitant/deprived at the expense of faster rollout, or too little time is being spent following up the hesitant or deprived and it’s moving forward too fast, or that some nearby areas are jabbing younger people or using up spare doses in a different way that always seems to favour others and not themselves, or there aren’t enough local centres, or they don’t like the centralised booking system, or they live in Scotland which doesn’t have a centralised booking system, or it’s not right who has been included in group 6, or it’s not right where the cut off age for AZ is, or they want to be able to choose which jab they have, or it’s not fair some people got the jab locally and others had to travel, or that some got it quicker and some had to wait etc etc.
It’s not perfect. It has to be broad brush to reach 53m people twice using uncertain supply and changing rules about who can be given which jab. But it’s constantly being tweaked and improved and adjusted to ensure supply is used more effectively, rollout is as fast as possible and that take up is as high as possible. Some of those goals are directly in conflict with each other and mean not everyone can have the jab immediately and locally. More people can have it sooner if more people travel. But the system hasn’t written those who can’t travel off. It will get to them...but it will take longer. For most people, the fastest way to be jabbed is to book on the national system and travel. And most people will do that. Some go to considerable efforts to make it happen because they think it’s really important to have it ASAP for themselves and for others too. Others don’t travel and wait however long it takes...and at the moment it could well be several weeks, some because they simply can’t travel, and others because rather choose not to. But they will all be reached in the end if they want the jab.