Why are vaccinations so slow in Edinburgh?

[Snowdrop30]

Just that really... Only 27 per cent of the population had been 'done' so far, when I checked this am. What's up?

It’s 36.7% of the adult population I think. Which is way lower than the 50% that is being discussed at a UK level. I think part of it is the “city factor”. Glasgow and Aberdeen are also near the bottom of the league table. I imagine an overall younger population, more densely populated has something to do with it. Maybe the screw up in appointment letters accounts for the difference between edinburgh and the other cities.

Feels pathetic we are still in mid 30s % though wish it would get cracking.

Early on they blamed a high number of care homes in cities for slowing the initial rate of vaccinations. I would think they should be quicker not slower - we've got great big vaccination centres set up and surely if there's more younger people we should be onto them already?
It's very frustrating!

Yep, I agree. Super frustrating, esp with rates in mainland Europe rising so fast.

oooh we're no longer bottom of the table today!! 32.4% compared to Glasgow's 32.2%! small win :)
www.travellingtabby.com/scotland-coronavirus-tracker/local

I wonder why those figures are so different to these. It has City of Edinburgh on 38.1%

public.tableau.com/profile/phs.covid.19#!/vizhome/COVID-19DailyDashboard_15960160643010/Overview

Just to say, there has been an issue with some Vaccination Appointment letters not being sent out. Whether this is Scotland or County wide, I have no idea. All over 60s should have been vaccinated by now. If you think you should have been called, but have not received a letter, there is a Covid Vaccination Helpline no: 0800 0308013, then option#2 and check if you are on Booking System. This is for Scotland only. Apparently some people were allocated appointments, but did not receive a letter.

I'm in Fife and we were bottom of the pile until a few weeks ago, I know there had been IT problems and mix ups with appointments.

I know Fife improved by setting up loads of smaller centres in the past few weeks, I know the demographics are different to a big city but it makes sense to have the vaccination clinics where they are accessible to people.

I does seem we are behind compared to England, I'm in the CEV group and only got vaccinated at the weekend when it seems like they are onto the vulnerable and over 50s in England.

We're clearly well behind England @Gingerkittykat as that stat last weekend was that 50% ofmuk adults have had at least one dose. Some areas down south are into the 40's age group. At least edinburgh is onto the 50's this week which feels like progress, I actually know people who aren't NHS staff getting their jabs!

There are various reasons for Scotland being so far behind England.
The obvious one is that the SNP couldn’t run a bath, let alone a vaccination program.
They proudly announced that they were “focusing on care homes” at the start of the rollout. And didn’t have the sense to set up mass vaccine centres at the same time, as England did. So they fell weeks behind from the beginning.
Secondly, they relied on the antiquated system of sending out appointment letters by post! No surprise that many went astray or people were unavailable on the date they were arbitrarily allocated.
England, by contrast set up a computerised system where people could book their own appointments online at a time they could definitely attend.
Boris tried to help by offering British army medics to Scotland to speed things up.
Sturgeon initially refused, before backing down.
I hope people remember all this when they go to the polls in May.

Yep

Absolutely @Babdoc

The post thing is killing me @Babdoc!! It's just so ridiculous in this age of technology. Especially given how erratic the post seems to be at the moment - i posted my mother's day card 1st class on the Friday lunchtime at a post box with a 5:30pm collection and a sticker on it saying "NHS priority box" (whatever that means).......she received it on Tuesday!! Yet they're sending out appointment letters with a couple of days notice assuming the royal mail does their part and people can attend the time/date they are given, and i'd imagine that will decrease now that we're into the age groups that are more likely to be working and have childcare responsibilities.

The way it's being organised in Scotland is cheap in comparison to England.

Up here it's all command and control and micro management. You will be told by post when and where to go unless we run out of envelopes.

Meanwhile in England you can book your appointment online when and where it suits. Get your second appointment at the same time and they are at 55% of the population vaccinated.

All because Saint Nicola wants to do it her way and not the Evil Boris way.

Percentage of population vaccinated in England: 42.9% first dose, 3% second dose

Percentage of population vaccinated in Scotland: 40.5% First dose, 4.3% second dose.

www.travellingtabby.com/uk-coronavirus-tracker/

"So far behind?"

The army have been involved since 19th January, but don't let little things like facts block the Sturgeon hate.....

Meanwhile on a different website

That's as a percent of the adult population over 16. Tabby's figures figures are the entire population.

Ah, ok.

I guess I'm more interested in the percentage of people that can currently get it, so the tableau figures make more sense to me. I can see the validity in wanting to know percentage of population, for 'herd immunity' purposes, but it's not really so accurate to compare how different nations are doing - unless they have the same percentage of under 16s.

But then I think it was Edinburgh the OP was talking about and that is still miles behind, about 32% I think. But has just overtaken Glasgow by a smudge so wasn't in last place yesterday.

Makes sense. I think Tabby uses the figures straight from the UK Government website, but not sure. Both ways are valid of course.

Agreed WaxOn. I was responding to how Scotland is not "so far behind" England. I would guess the age demographics of the population for Edinburgh, combined with the lost/late letters this week.

I'd also note that a percent and a half is about 70-80 thousand people. Given infection rate is about 70 per 100k, that's potentially another 50ish cases per day. Given we are being restricted based on positive test results, it matters more than it should imo.

50ish cases per week, surely? So less than 1% impact on the current weekly rate per 100,000 and therefore unlikely to influence any decision making?

Also, it's not clear whether the vaccine stops transmission.

Not per week I don't think, unless you catch up, you are always 70-80k behind so that impacts every day until you catch up so that's 10% ish? Though obviously it's all theory and who knows if the extra cases would have been people who are waiting.

So effectively you have people at risk for longer. it's easy to say well, it's only a couple of percent but that is a lot of people and apart from any health effects they may suffer, it clearly links to the "case" count and that's the figure that is stopping people living a normal life.

And starry, look at the data, fewer and fewer cases in those that have been jabbed so regardless if it stops spread or not, being jabbed seems to stop people being ill and testing positive for a decent proportion of the population. Being behind affects that. There is also the effect on folks mental health where they are anxiously waiting due to health anxiety issues.

Overall i think it's great that the UK government have secured these vaccines and protected people and also that the people in the centres have done a brilliant job but once again, decisions taken by scotgov have adversely affected rollout.

Edinburgh and Glasgow seem to be similar to London in that they have very low vaccination rates. Would be interesting to see if other bigger cities have similar issues.