Under 50's vaccines

[emmathedilemma]

Does anyone know what's happening up here for the age groups under 50 (who don't fall into the carers / underlying health conditions etc that have already been done)?
I read that NHS England weren't planning to start them before May due to supply issues and to enable them to keep up with second doses but I haven't seen anything relating to Scotland. The BBC website just has all age groups under 50 defined as "by the end of July". The omni queue calculator reckons first dose for age 40+ between 10th & 19th April but I suspect that's fake news.
Has anyone under 50 had an invite yet??
I'm getting impatient now!!

Whether it is because of this election or what, there is a distinct lack of information and questioning / challenging of the SG on this vaccine roll out at the moment. There seems to be no urgency to get through the under 50s - maybe that’s right based on risk but the release of lockdown is dependent on progress.

Compare it with my friend in London, working in the office, having coffees and lunches and dinners outdoors with friends and colleagues. Has a stash of lateral flow tests at home for when needed as they’ve been entitled to two a week via a simple online form for a few weeks now (and also there is a testing centre at her nearest station - London Bridge - where you can just turn up and get a result within mins), oh and she’s already had the vaccine too....

It's disappointing on many levels hearing this.
Over 50 here. I rearranged my time but couldn't get back on system to cancel my future booking. I wondered if it was because I had been done by that point. But maybe I'm down as a no show?

While I was looking yhe system was showing full week of available slots at a different centre to the point I thought it was likely an error and didn't book.

I have also been wondering why no one is asking about the unders 50s too @Littlemissweepy
It seems that the other nations are doing many more first doses than Scotland and we don’t have any explanation for this. I would like to understand the rationale.
All my school friends in other parts of the uk are posting on fb to say they have had their first dose which is great news but I want to know where mine is!
I haven’t seen my Dad since Jan 2020 as he is in NI and we haven’t felt that it was safe for him to come and visit, or for us to stay with him. I would like to see him as soon as I can and restrictions allow but I would also like my husband and I to have had our first dose. We are both still WFH but I would feel safer knowing that we had some protection.

Has anyone in the 45-50 age group in Forth Valley had an appointment letter yet?

When are under 50s being done am desperate to see family in Scotland that I’ve not seen in a year

@ilovebrie8

When are under 50s being done am desperate to see family in Scotland that I’ve not seen in a year

if you read the last couple of pages you'll see that 45-49 year olds are starting to get appointments in the coming weeks.

[quote WhatWouldTheDoctorDo]@Haydaywithbellson - when DH rearranged his earlier in the week (original appt was 30th April) there were slots available all day every day at a nearer centre this week. But even though I'm 48, I can't book one as don't have my letter yet. Rang the helpline today and they said to leave it another couple of weeks. So infuriating. [/quote]
I know it's so frustrating and I just can't understand it - such a waste of staff resource if there are empty appointment slots

I know, I too am dismayed by the lack of questioning the SG over when under 50s are getting vaccines.

There's been issues with vaccine supply at national level.

Things will move on in a couple of weeks.

I'm having my first vaccine on Tuesday, in our area it appears that people born in 1972 and 1973 have been called, people in the younger half of the 45-49 age group haven't yet.

Seems more of the first doses at the moment are Pfizer, don't really care one way or the other but it'll be interesting to see what I get.

My sister went to the Hydro today and was given AstraZeneca. I would think I will receive the same on Tuesday.

We have a different demographic makeup. In Scotland groups 1-9 make up over 60% of the population. In the UK as a whole this is about 45%.

That’s good to know @RaspberryCoulis. I wasn’t sure how they did it but that makes sense calling folk by year of birth. I am 1974 so hopefully I won’t have too much longer to wait.

I'm 1973 as is dh
No letters yet

I think health boards are doing things differently. Looking at the figures on travelling tabby there have been almost 300,000 doses given, but 260,000 of those were second doses. The number of people getting their first dose has slowed (understandably, as it's important people get their second too and there is limited capacity).

Yesterday, only 3206 people got a first jab.

Hopefully all those waiting will get the blue envelope soon.

Fife here, age 48. I've got my appointment on Monday and a colleague of similar age is on Wednesday.

we're Angus and 55+ dh only had his blue letter and jag about three weeks ago

I got a "can you be here for 5pm??" call at the end of Feb ...presumably as I am on the flu list... so we are waiting for our 2nd doses but who knows when!

It does seem odd and annoying that there's no booking facility as there is in other places.

BBC reporting the following today

So 2/3 of 45-49 -year-olds in England have received a first dose - we are nowhere near that in Scotland. DH (49) got his yesterday and was told there were 140 booked in (to one of the big regional centres) but loads more bookings available. I phoned the helpline to see if I could book in but was told I'm not on the system yet. I'm 47. It's so frustrating that our first doses are behind here and no way to hold SG to account or ask why. So 'in the coming days' a 40 year old in England will know when/how they will be able to access the vaccine when in Scotland (more than) half of the 45-49 group are still waiting for a letter.

Oops, italics fail there

It's so frustrating that our first doses are behind here and no way to hold SG to account or ask why.

When you look at the data, rather than what groups are starting to be invited there is no indication Scotland are "behind". We are on par % wise with England overall.

Doesn't the travelling tabby website use % of total population rather than % of adult population?
If we're on a par with England in terms of total % then that suggests that Scotland has a higher percentage of older people. Is that really the case??
I'd say we're behind when my peers in England have had theirs and I probably won't get mine for another month up here.

If we have so many elderly and vulnerable in out Scottish population then why isn’t the % of the population vaccinated much higher than England then? All working to the same mid Feb and mid April targets over over 70s, over 50s etc.

Would love to see a source for the statistic above that 60% of Scotland are JCVI 9 vs 45% of England. I find that difficult to believe.

I'd say we're behind when my peers in England have had theirs and I probably won't get mine for another month up here

That's what I mean emma. The stats there are for the whole population, not this age group. So for me, as a 47 year old yes we are behind when England are now inviting 44 year olds and talking about 40-43 year olds knowing this week when they can book - while I don't even have a number on the system. So my letter probably won't come this week so in all likelihood it will be next week (at the earliest) before I even get an appointment, and based on DH's letter, the actual appointment will be at least 2 weeks after that.

Scotland has a slightly older population % and England has slightly higher % of children under 16.

Okay, Scotland are "behind" in opening up the next age group but they are not "behind" in vaccinations.

If Scotland has a slightly older population and/or chose to vaccinate that older, more at risk, population more completely before opening up the next age group while keeping up a similar % rate of vaccination surely that is the right thing to do?

So no "hold SG to account" is required, if there was it would be a hot topic in the media and with the opposition parties .

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55274833

From this it looks like Scotland has done a slightly better job of reaching all of its JCVI groups - 98% with first jabs as opposed to 95% in England. Similar numbers to England for % of 18+ population with jabs: 62 vs 63% first jab, 20 vs 21% second jab.

Scotland's population is slightly older and in worse health overall than England's, and I believe the proportion of vaccines allocated to Scotland is in line with overall population, not in line with the population proportions in the different age/priority groups. Small differences in demographics will translate into weeks of difference for the younger age groups right now because of the shift to focus on second jabs and the supply of vaccines being lower.

I'm encouraged to see that Edinburgh has hit 31.7% of 40-49 year olds with a first jab as of yesterday. I'd expect to see letters for the 40-44 year olds start coming out when that gets to 50-60% (as it will include a chunk of health care workers & clinically vulnerable people in the 40-44 group who are already done).