Conundrum

When I booked my jab I was automatically booked in for the 2nd 11 weeks later.

All my (old) friends who had the vaccine early on due to age etc have either had or have a date for the second one.

There were many articles at the time said that the industry standard for max effect was a delay of 12 weeks. 12 weeks being the gold standard due to the way our immune system works

And that the 3 weeks delay in trials was for expediency to get the vaccine regulatory approval some 2 months earlier than otherwise if a 12 week delay had been used.

top-posted for Brian

We had invitations yesterday to book second doses of Pfizer. That was 9 weeks after out first. First available slot was 16 April. If - big if

- that's typical then it gives plenty of time to arrange a companion.

My parents (in their 80s) have recently had their second jabs (they were sent letters to book them). My wife (medically vulnerable) has recently had a letter and is booked for her second jab in a couple of weeks. I (54) had a letter a month ago, which let me book both appointments (last Thursday and 17th June) at the same time, so I won't have to wait for a second letter.

I'm not female, I'm not on the pill, I don't smoke ... so I took my chances ...

It wouldn't let me complete booking for 1st jab without booking 2nd at same time. 1st was had in Leicester, but no appointments there for the

Which means you must think the risks from a vaccine greater than catching Covid. How did you arrive at this conclusion? You'd need some pretty specialist knowledge do it with any accuracy.

Round here, it was your GP who arranged the vaccine for us oldies and vulnerable. With the second one not always given a date for. Online booking seem to give both.

I've got my 2nd one booked (in 12 days time) at the same as the first via NHS/bookacorronavirusvaccation. SWMBO, whose was arranged via her GP only 3 days after mine hasn'yt yet got a 2nd appointment.

Isn't the comparison (for the individual) more between any potential risk from any vaccine versus the risk of any *illness / death* resulting from catching something that the vaccine may have prevented, not actually catching Covid19 (in this case) itself?

The extension of that would be any advantages re herd immunity, if there was such from the vaccine (not the case with the Covid19 vaccines as I understand it)?

Eg, Whilst I understand on a few hundred otherwise healthy youngsters have died from Covid19, there is a very good chance many have carried and passed it onto their parents or grandparents who have died.

If the vaccine prevented them from carrying the virus (asymptomatically especially) then it would make sense to vaccinate them, but again, I don't believe it's the case (meaning social distancing between them and their parents / grandparents is the safest bet and let them get herd immunity 'naturally' and so no risks from the vaccine)?

Cheers, T i m

As I was booking mine online, by the time I'd chosen the date and time for the second, the first had been allocated to someone else. ;-)

So I went back and chose the first date to be at a better time (for me) a couple more days on and chose the second date (now later as well) at a later time (than the earliest available) to up the odds. ;-)

Whack-a-mole vaccine booking. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

There are still two separate systems running. The central NHS system and your local GPs.

Recently I received an NHS letter (54, with a slightly increased risk due to a medical condition) and booked both appointments online. A week or two later, I received a text from my GP, offering appointments, with a link to book and the option to reject, which then brought up further options for reasons for rejecting, where I selected "Already booked appointments" or something similar.

No, it means I'm not in the groups that start with a higher blood-clot risk, which the az vaccine may (or may not) exacerbate, therefore I didn't let a factor which is trivial for me as an individual, deter me from getting the vaccine.

Looking at the demographics (which only seem to be available for England, not the UK as whole, or for the other nations individually)

It seems the people most likely to test positive at the moment are 10-14 year olds, so highly likely related to the return to school, though possibly also the less accurate results from LFD compared to PCR tests.

You can also see the Oct/Nov surge started in 15-24 year olds, so likely related to return to university.

Those above retirement age, or below school age are now the least likely within society to catch covid, though it may well still be more serious for them if they do.

And because of a planned dog_walk_to_Toolstation and back (~6 miles) was 'modified' by some park groundworks, we had to deviate past a secondary school at emptying out time and we felt like salmon swimming up a Covid stream.[1] ;-(

Yeah.

Something I'm feeling slightly more comfortable about after having the jab (or jabs in her case), for both us and my Mum (now 91).

Cheers, T i m

And it's only a mid sized terrier, not a wolf! ;-)

Of course. By catching Covid, I'm assuming you'd know this by the symptoms. Until we have exhaustive regular testing, we're not going to know how many have it but have no symptoms. Whereas we do have figures for those with symptoms bad enough to go to a doctor. And we also have figures for any reactions to the vaccine - to date. Obviously long term side effects from either will have to wait for time to pass.

Herd immunity generally means letting the weak die and the strong survive. Maybe OK in the wild, but with mankind and civilisation the 'brain' can be more important than 'muscle', as it were.

Yes - even more so where generations tend to live together.

The normal way with vaccines is to immunise (near) everyone. So the virus doesn't get transmitted and dies out. Not of course for ever. But that was the theory with other vaccinations.

Yes - although doesn't appear to be the case natiowide.

I had my NHS letter some time after my GP had arranged (and I'd had) my first jab.

Yes. We need to 'control' the virus itself before we can return to normality. In practice by immunising everyone, and re-doing that for any new strain not covered by the present vaccines. Much cheaper to do than having a lock down every once in a while. It's not rocket science. Plenty take medication every day for other things. To vaccinate the entire country once a year isn't going to be impossible.