What would happen if you didn’t get a second Vaccine?

[peacheswithcream]

I’m 35 with no underlying health conditions.

I was contacted by my GP in March to say I was eligible for the vaccine.

I contacted the surgery to query this, but the receptionist told me I was categorised under group 6 and I should take the vaccine.

I was thrilled and didn’t query this any further, I honestly just happily skipped along to the vaccination centre to get my first dose. I was given AstraZeneca.

I’m now due my second dose in 2 weeks and given the new guidance for under 40’s I really don’t know what to do.

I wish I had’ve waited, because if I had, I now wouldn’t be given AstraZeneca.

I have several friends in their late 30’s who have recently received their first dose of Pfizer.
I feel so envious and if I’m honest angry.

I know I should be extremely grateful that I have some protection, but I feel angry that I was so willing to just take a vaccine which is now being discontinued in my age group.

To date there have been 8 documented cases of blood clots following a second dose, and whilst I understand this number is small, I don’t think it’s a risk I want to take.

I tried to get an appointment with my GP last week to talk about this but I couldn’t get an appointment.
I asked the receptionist if she could see my medical records and tell me why I was group,
she told me It was relating to gestational diabetes (I was pregnant in 2019) so obviously my records hadn’t been updated.

I feel so angry with myself that I didn’t question this at the time I was offered the vaccine, but I was just so happy to be getting one that I went along with it.

I know no one can make my decision for me, it is anyone feeling the same way?

I’m in a similar situation. I had the first jab because of my line of work (early 30s pretty healthy etc) but I am not sure I want my second one.

I am not worried about blood clots but simply for the fact I couldn’t get a GP appointment at all.
I had normal side effects headache, sickness, tiredness etc and was told if they remained for more than 4 days to contact the doctor. A week later and it got worse and the GP wouldn’t see me still, almost 3 weeks later after ringing every day I ended up in hospital with kidney failure.

There is no evidence that it is related to the vaccination at all so I’m not worried about the 2nd jab in that sense but the fact that I can’t get a GP appointment really worries me.

And for the love of God will people STOP conflating normal blood clots (eg from plane jouneys/pill) which carry about a 1% fatality rate with this VITT/TTS Syndrome of clot combined with low platelets which makes it very hard to treat and carries a current fatality rate with treatment of 20%!!!

Apples and Pears

Norway found incidence 1:20k which had JCVI continued

@Oaktree55

**Norway found incidence 1:20k which had JCVI continued

The medical, scientific and mathematical assessments are all firmly on the side that having your second jab is the least risky option both individually and collectively. If cases continue to rise the odds will be in even more favour of having the jab, even in the younger age groups.
Make whatever decision you want, and I get that anxieties aren’t rational, but the facts are what they are, however much people look to twist them.
I’m in my 30s and will be having my second AZ next week, cannot wait til be fully vaccinated.

@cookerhood no it wasn’t a different type of clot :)

If the Indian variant really takes off, tge JCVI have already said they'll consider reversing the non-AZ to the under 40s recommendation. You need to understand that no vaccine is 'safe' and that covid is far, far worse for most people especially when cases are high. Take your jab, honestly, just take and be grateful you'll be more protected, and earlier, given the fears over the Indian variant.

This is the sensible case.

Honestly the idea that I’m lucky because I haven’t been offered a vaccination yet so will get Pfizer or Moderna when I eventually am, rather than the OP being luckier for having been vaccinated a while ago is really frustrating.

Anxieties aren’t irrational on this issue.

[quote fairynick]@cookerhood no it wasn’t a different type of clot :)[/quote]
My apologies, I though clots from the pill were completely different. I didn't realise the pill caused this type of rare clot associated with low platelets. Of course you should be offered something different if you have had a cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.

As someone said above, the rate is no different in the under 40s, it's simply that their risk benefit is slightly different, which will of course change as the incidence goes up.

How would you feel if you were just 40 like me OP? Do we magically become much more susceptible to COVID complications when we reach our 40th birthdays? It’s a cutoff because there has to be a cutoff somewhere and the scientists are being ultra cautious. The cutoff could have easily been 35, and then you’d have been in the AZ category anyway.

I’m in my 30s and had AZ a couple of months ago, due my second soon. I was a bit iffy when the blood clot stuff all came out but now I have decided I’ll definitely get my second. We know what to look out for after the vaccine with regards to symptoms of these clots etc so I’m just going to go for it.

@peacheswithcream I completely understand where you’re coming from. I’m mid 30s and had AZ first dose start of March before blood clot issue came to light. I had it due to underlying health issue. I have been taken off the pill in the past due to high risk clotting factors and two cases of DVT (hospital treated) and varicose vein surgery. I mentioned this at after appointment and they said it was fine. Now I’m a bit concerned. Second jab is supposed to be next month but I’m honestly not sure.

I have had covid too in November. It wasn’t great but wasn’t as bad as some. I seem to have recovered fully.

Eh? Feeling frustrated or anxious - totally understandable.

Angry?! At who? How strange. Just take the second jab or don’t.

@FiddlefigOnTheRoof

Eh? Feeling frustrated or anxious - totally understandable.

Angry?! At who? How strange. Just take the second jab or don’t.

@FiddlefigOnTheRoof

At myself. I feel like I just followed the “crowd”
Jumped straight into taking the vaccine.

I should’ve just waited until my age group were called and then I wouldn’t be in this predicament.

OP I completely understand where you’re coming from. I’m in my 30s and am due my second dose in four weeks and have no underlying risk factors. I think it’s very easy for people to say it’s a very small risk unless they are actually in our situation. I’ve been watching all the data very carefully and I’m still unsure what I’m going to do.

I was reading this last night and there is some reference to the people in the AZ trials who only had one dose and also some discussion regarding dose spacing of 12 weeks plus but I could really do with someone with more experience of reading scientific papers to help me interpret what is being said. www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2821%2900432-3

Like you I really want to try and get to the bottom of the purpose of the second dose and the duration of the immunity from just one dose too.

OP, you followed advice given to you by experts at the time. No one has a crystal ball. I’ll put it another way - your early vaccine may have saved your life, and the lives of others, already - you will never know.

You could well be in a worse predicament, having had covid though in the meantime.

Or, covid rates would be higher generally because people hadn't had the vaccine, and in that case, the risk/benefit ratio would still be swinging in the direction of giving everyone AZ at whatever age.

So waiting would likely have been the worse option in either case.

And waiting still is similar - if you don't have it, you risk getting ill in the next while because you're not fully protected, and the rates increase in the country generally, and then it'll be back in the situation where AZ is recommended for your (and other) age groups. and you'd have missed out on the months of partial protection.

You're comparing in your mind situations that never existed - a situation where rates were low and you could have had alternative vaccines.. you did the best thing you could have at the time, and gave yourself partial protection for the past couple of months, which is a really good thing. If you hadn't, things would likely be very different now.

Whitty knowing and literally saying that shorting the gap between doses makes a small difference in effectiveness. Still at the last briefing told people they needed to make the gap shorter to 8 weeks. If that doesn't tell people that you have an issue if only got one jab. Well I don't pigging know what else will.

This is not difficult. The vaccines apart from Janssen were designed to be two doses. They didn't just make that bit up to be difficult. You need your second dose and if you are in the UK at the moment you need it at 8 weeks. The India variant isn't going to be waiting around until you decide too.

Yes, if they are willing to give up the little extra protection that waiting 12 weeks might offer, in favour of getting people a second dose faster, that tells you a bit about how worried they are about the new variant and the level of protection that one dose offers. It's not an easy ask of vaccination centres to arrange vastly more doses and appointments than they were intending to do in the next few weeks, and I think that shows the importance of it.

@Eminybob

Be grateful you have been offered an early vaccine, and get your second dose.

Or don’t, I don’t really care. I’m sick of people being so bloody ungrateful about being offered a vaccine that could save their life.

Ps if you have ever been on the pill you have had a higher risk of developing blood clots.

This with bells on

I would be extremely pleased to have is offered to me - not angry. In my country, the vaccination programme is way behind. I am 49 and ECV and cannot find a vaccine anywhere. Under-50s here must have the Pfizer vaccine, but there isn't any available in my region, so I'm stuck. However, my 50 year old DH was texted by our GP surgery about AZ vaccine availability. Additionally, if we want a vaccine, we have to take the initiative. We're not sent appointments or reminded. This is our Government's biggest failing, I feel.

I'm just saying I would give anything to feel protected - even a little bit protected - from COVID. You're very lucky to have had this privilege.

Honestly the idea that I’m lucky because I haven’t been offered a vaccination yet so will get Pfizer or Moderna when I eventually am, rather than the OP being luckier for having been vaccinated a while ago is really frustrating.

You are lucky though. You haven't had to have the riskier and less effective vaccine, you can wait for the one that is better and less likely to kill you. You clearly haven't died of Covid in the meantime so yes, you absolutely lucked out in this compared to those stuck with AZ.

I totally get it OP - I'm mid 30s and in the same boat. My AZ vaccine was also not related to any health reasons. To be honest, looking back I can't believe I was so bloody excited to get vaccinated. Why?! Mid 30s with no health conditions and I skipped right off for my injection?! And it turns out the injection had far more risk to me than Covid as it's now banned in my age group. Not only that, but nobody around me has had Covid in the interim (and I don't go anywhere - if I get it it'll be from school age kids etc!) so I haven't 'saved' myself from anything by getting it early, all I've done is deny myself the chance of the appropriate vaccine that all my peers are now getting. I'm jealous and I don't care who doesn't understand that. I know many of those in the same boat will get it.

For now, I've cancelled my second vaccine and will wait and see. I'm not convinced there's going to be a significant 'third wave' or that I don't have enough protection based on one jab and being healthy mid 30s. And I'm certainly not convinced that more and more cases of serious blood clots after second doses aren't going to show up. When I got my first, the news was rumbling in the background about blood clots and people were saying 'only 5 cases' and 'probably not linked' and it escalated bloody quickly. I'll wait at least 16 weeks from my first dose (the gap they're leaving in some European countries - though others have banned AZ second doses and they got it right the first time too, I'm aware) and then see what's happening.