arlowood

13 minutes ago, Bloodaxe said:

 

I had a call from our surgery yesterday offering me a jab on Saturday, I asked about my Wife, told she is not on the list yet.

I am 74 and she is 71 so we are both in group 4, I said no thanks I will wait until we can both have it at the same time.

This morning I received the letter asking me to book on line, it did say I could wait to be contacted by our surgery.

It does seem a little disorganised to me but I will wait for my Wife anyway.

 

 

That seems a rather arbitrary and annoying response from your surgery. You are both in Group 4 so there should be no reason to refuse your wife a jab. Maybe they were short of vaccine supplies - but still very frustrating for you I imagine

3 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

No neither me nor my husband have a second date.

In the Nottingham area, the hubs vaccine appointments are organised through the "Swiftqueue" website and we have 7 hubs currently with others due to come onstream. With the Swiftqueue system you are automatically assigned a date for your 2nd jab when you book the first. Wife and I were jabbed last Friday and we have 17th April as the date for our 2nd jab.

All worked well to a degree although I had a problem with the jab booking system. After registering on the Swiftqueue platform I selected a hub and and appointment time for my jab. The system then allowed you to add a family member and I added my wife and selected a time for her jab 10 mins after mine. However when I got to the end of the process my appointment had disappeared from the summary page at the end. However I did receive a text and an email confirmation.

When we turned up last Friday it turned out that I was indeed AWOL from their system. However the young lady in reception quickly added me back in and all went through smoothly. I now have another text and email confirming my 2nd jab date in April.

Everything was very well organised and we were in and out within 30mins including the 15min waiting time as we had the Pfizer jab.

59 minutes ago, Aulanis said:

BIL  has emailed he has just had his 1st jab  (or maybe 3rd)  He ,as did some of you took part in the Novavax trials but was never told if he had the real thing or the placebo.   He doesnt know why he was called up  for a vaccine

as he is in the 60-69 group  but went and they didnt know either but gave it.

Arm was sore for 2 days  so he contacted  whoever at Novavax and they said it was OK but in no circumstances should he take a  second (Fourth) jab  until it was confirmed what he had had on the trial as 3 was more than enough for anyone!!! 

Just wondering if any of you have been told what you had in the trials and what you have to do when called up under the normal channels.

I was a volunteer in the over-70 cohort for the Oxford/AZ vaccine. When the Pfizer vaccine received approval back in December we were sent information about how to respond if we got an invitation to have the NHS vaccine.

Essentially we should contact the study directors for the group we were involved with and ask to be "unblinded". If we had received 2 doses of the Oxford vaccine then we were told that we need not take the Pfizer (or any other) jab. If we only had one dose of the Oxford vaccine or the placebo then we should accept the offer from the NHS to be jabbed. Unfortunately the unblinding means that any data cannot be included in the final assessment but we were asked to continue with the follow up visits as the data generated would still be valuable for safety and immune response purposes.

As it happens I had the placebo and was inoculated yesterday with the Pfizer vaccine

47 minutes ago, Splice the mainbrace said:

So from what I understand from todays news, the EU want AZ to export vaccine from UK to EU countries but individual EU countries may stop export of vaccines to the UK (or other non EU countries) if it is not in the EU countries interest!!

Could this put Pfizer 2nd doses at risk?

There is potentially a risk if the EU carries out it threat to scrutinise any "export" of vaccine manufactured in the EU to a non-EU country.

I get the impression that this sabre rattling by the EU is a bit of a smokescreen to divert attention away from their poor performance in acquiring sufficient vaccine orders for their own citizens. Firstly they stopped individual member states from striking deals on vaccine supply and insisted on a centralised system that introduced delays - hence the fact that they are behind the curve by about 3 months. Secondly they backed at least one horse that failed to finish - the French Sanofi vaccine.

In contrast we in the UK immediately convened a vaccine acquisition team of industry specialists who struck deals quickly with a number of the fledgling research groups. To date it seems that we were lucky in some respects and have backed at least 5 potential winners with maybe another 2 coming up on the rails.

OK we have been lucky - but there's an phrase that says you make your own luck if you go about things in the right way. At least our vaccine strategy is one of the shining lights in an otherwise gloomy set of performances in this pandemic

As far as I understand it. In the Oxford/AZ trials, there were insufficient numbers in the over-65 cohort who actually caught the disease to make a solid prediction on efficacy. However immune responses were measured in all groups. Those in the over-65 group showed equivalent immune responses to those in other groups. So it is probably a fair assumption to say that the vaccine should be effective. No doubt with the millions being vaccinated there is now a massive pool of trial subjects to confirm or refute those assumptions.

I saw one journalist claim that the German reaction may be some form of "vaccine nationalism" since the Pfizer jab was developed by a German company BioNTech

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

Had an interesting e-mailshot from P&O today. Whilst acknowledging that I have a cruise booked with them, they wonder if I can be tempted to book another 'Adventure'. The interesting bit is that in part of the email, they ask "Which of our ships will you choose?" - and then go on to provide links to cruises on Azura, Britannia, Iona and Ventura. No links to Arcadia or Aurora.

Not suggesting that they are about to sell them off or anything but it may be linked in to Molecrochip's post some time back suggesting that the two smaller ships will return to duty later than their large counterparts...

That's odd - I had a similar email this afternoon as we're booked on Aurora for a 1st May cruise (unlikely I'm guessing) and August (more hopeful). They were suggesting I consider going for a booking in 2022 and when I clicked on the link it was only showing cruises on Aurora and Arcadia for the Mediterranean.

The preamble in the email did refer to us preferring adult only ships (as we do) so maybe each email is tailored to the cruise profile of each guest.

Suppose it still does not rule out the possibility that Aurora and Arcadia may not sail during this year but they are still being promoted for 2022

2 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

I think something like this was always going to happen, everybody wants their share (or what they think is their share) and they want it now, I think this type of situation will escalate globally as other countries will compare themselves with the likes of Israel, the UK and US who are leading the world at the moment. These situations don't always bring the best out in people,  look at the furore in the early days of our vaccine deployment when the vaccine companies were being blamed for not supplying enough vaccine. If the EU think they are being short changed they will hit back just like we would have in the same situation.

Yes I believe there was a report last week that Canada have ordered enough vaccine to treat their population four times over. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-07/canada-has-reserved-more-vaccine-doses-per-person-than-anywhere

I think the Archbishop of Canterbury had a go at them - suggesting that we are not protected until all countries are protected and maybe they should rethink their "stockpiling"

15 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Unfortunately, without Covid restrictions,  these people would still have not got their treatment, as even more people would have caught Covid, and the resultant strain on the health service would have meant that there would have been even less capacity for other treatment.

 

Even after the pandemic ends, the effects of it will be felt down the years in so many ways. As I’ve said before, nothing is quite the same again after an event of this magnitude 

I would also pay tribute to the healthcare professionals who. at the very early stages of the pandemic, started trials to asses what treatments might be effective in alleviating the symptoms of Covid.

My brother (78) had a fall in early March and was operated on to repair a broken femur. After a few days he was discharged to a rehab centre that happened to be in a residential care home. 10 days later he was diagnosed with Covid. In the A&E admissions area my niece was effectively told that if his condition deteriorated than he would not be offered an ICU bed. I think at that time there may have been some arbitrary scoring system being used to triage patients and select those who would benefit from Intensive care.

In any event he was transferred to a ward and put on a CPAP machine. A day or so later he was asked if he wanted to be part of a trial for an intervention treatment. He agreed and after about a week he was taken off the CPAP and has now fully recovered. It wasn't until he was back home and talking to his GP that he found out that he had received dexamethazone as part of that trial.

When talking to him I suggested that he should start buying lottery tickets - he could so easily have been one of the untreated placebo patients on that trial and who knows how that would have turned out.

6 minutes ago, wowzz said:

To put a glass half full point of view, even if the second dose is not administered, those who have had the first injection will still be 90% protected.  OK, not perfect, but the second dose only gives a slightly greater degree of protection,  so by no means the end of the world. 

Thank you Wowzz - you have just dispelled the half empty gremlin. In his presence I had forgotten the efficacy stats on the Pfizer jab. I'll take the 90% effectiveness all day long.

Slightly worrying news item today reporting that the EU is implementing a "notification scheme" for any manufacturer who is exporting vaccine out of the EU. This primarily would affect the Pfizer vaccine as the majority if not all is made in Belgium.

The report seems to suggest that this is a response to the fact that Astra Zenica have rolled back on the supply quantities promised of their vaccine within the EU due to manufacturing difficulties. This will leave short of supplies to treat their citizens.

The head of the vaccine supply group in the UK has insisted that there should be no problem as we have sufficient stocks of the Pfizer jab to meet the 15million target. However it does raise a slight concern about the security of supplies for the follow-up jab for all those on the 12 week regime of the Pfizer product. It was stated that we have no worries because virtually all of the AZ product in manufactured here in the UK. But that may be no consellation if the Pfizer jab becomes scarce and the follow-up jabs are put in jeopardy.

Sorry to raise another red flag but it is my glass half empty persona ruling at the moment

49 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

On an episode of Mighty Cruise Ships, featuring Viking Sea, they went a past a hill with a hole in it!  Its called Torghatten.  

 

Might find that only Aurora and Arcadia can get close enough for a good view though.

Yes - on our one and only Fred cruise on the Boudicca we did a sail past the Torgahatten and also sailed into Trollfjord which in a long narrow fjord that opens out at the end with just enough room for Boudicca to do a 360 and sail out. According to the Captain, Boudicca was the largest ship that could tackle that manoeuvre. 

Unfortunately none of the remaining P&O ships are small enough so maybe the Torghatten option is a non-starter. The Trollfjord would definitely be off-limits

13 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

We have blood taken at each appointment, so I suspect that they do check for antibodies but I didn't ask. It is a blind study so we don't know whether we have had the vaccine or the placebo.

For comparison purposes, I can confirm that I am currently a volunteer in the over-70's cohort of the Oxford/AZ vaccine trial. I was jabbed initially back in August 2020 with the follow-up jab in September. We had monthly appointments thereafter with blood samples taken each time. So I am presuming that they will have been assessing antibody levels at each time point. After the visit in December the appointment schedule went to 3 months and I have a date in March 2021 for the next visit.

All the above has now been somewhat complicated by the fact that I received my NHS letter during this last week (I'm over 75). As advised by the study group, I contacted them to get myself "unblinded" so that I could decide how to proceed. In the event, it turns out that I received the placebo so I am now booked in for a jab on the 28th. As far as I can establish, the hub where my vaccination will be done is only handling the Pfizer vaccine.

I will continue with the study appointments as agreed but I am guessing that my data will not be able to form any part of the final assessment of the Oxford vaccine. However I hope that they will still be taking blood samples and checking for antibody levels to provide as much info as possible for the Pfizer vaccine.

1 minute ago, Josy1953 said:

My niece has just text me that she has had her first Pfizer vaccine today.  This is good news for our family because she is having chemotherapy ( had 5th out of 6 chemo sessions on Monday ) so her immune system is compromised at the moment.

Yes - after a minor hiccup our local hubs (Nottingham and Nottinghamshire) are back on stream offering jabs to the over-75's. Just booked myself and the other half in for Friday 29th. The Swiftqueue website has also automatically booked our appointments for the 2nd jab in April.

10 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Dont know if it is just me being cynical or others think the same but I dont take much notice of the death rate per million widely portrayed by the press and news corporations. I am not totally convinced that all countries are using the same rules to measure deaths per million so it makes it nonsensical.

I agree entirely. We have no way of knowing with any certainty how other countries record their death figures. There is also the accusation that some deaths in the UK have been attributed to COVID when other factors have been the primary cause.

I don't disagree that we have a parlous situation here in the UK but scoring points or otherwise by drawing up league tables is not helpful

33 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

If it’s such a good idea why is the U.K. the only country in the world with a 12 week gap between doses for the Pfizer vaccine. WHO have said it should be given no later than 6 weeks after the first as have the BMA. For those who received their vaccination on the first day, today is day 42 by which time they should have had their second dose. A read a piece this morning from an virologist asking whether NHS England were planning any blood testing of those who have been vaccinated to see if the Antibodies in the blood are there from the vaccination and checking regularly to see if there is any changed, to date he has had no answer. 

The monitoring of antibody levels in the millions already vaccinated would be a huge undertaking but I wonder if there is a sub-set anywhere that is being monitored to check if there are any distinctions between those who have already had 2 doses and those on the extended 12 week schedule.

An additional data point that will be crucial is to interrogate all who return a positive Covid test on whether they have been vaccinated and where they are on the time spectrum (ie 2 doses or 1 dose and waiting for the second). I'm sure it will be inbuilt somewhere but I don't know for certain

Apology - folks. I will have to retract my earlier comment about how successful we seem to have been in the Nottingham area regarding the roll out of the vaccinations.

It's been announced this evening that the start of the vaccination programme for the over-75's will have to be paused despite the Swiftqueue website only going live with the invitations on Wednesday. The target date to restart the programme is 28th January.

It would appear that the stats are showing the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire has one of the worst success rates when it comes to completing the over-80's and care home cohorts.

Ironically my wife and I just got our letters today. We'll sit tight and hope that the target date for resumption is a realistic one.

Here in the Nottingham area we seem to be doing fairly well with 7 hubs around the county accessible through the Switfqueue web link.

Until earlier this week all hubs were calling for the over-80's to register and book an appointment. It changed on Wednesday, I believe, and the hubs were requesting the over-75's to book appointments.

I had a look yesterday morning and there were appointments available at several hubs for the over-75's including the one about 10 miles away (nearest to home). When I looked again last night there were no appointments showing anywhere.

This morning my wife and I got our NHS letter (over-75 group). I had a look at the Swiftqueue website and the hubs were now back to calling for over-80's. Then our local news at lunchtime reported that Nottingham were rolling back on the over-75 vaccinations because of the issue with completing the over-80's quota. I think this is a reflection of the national news report last night that some areas of the country were well behind others with their vaccine programme.

I suspect that doses may be being diverted from areas with a high percentage success to those that are lagging behind.

I will keep checking to see what develops but hopefully things will pan out OK in the next few weeks 

11 hours ago, emam said:

 

I'm not sure if you are having a laugh or being serious.

It was a slightly tongue-in-cheek comment but I suspect there may be a kernel of truth lurking in there somewhere

3 minutes ago, emam said:

They are halfing the amount of vaccines that we can have up here from next week. They are to be diverted elsewhere.

Think that might be due to the stats reported today. The North East has done almost double the amount of over-80's than London or the East of England (78% vs 42%) Don't quote me on those figures but the general gist is there. 

Might be a case of where we see some "levelling down" to make sure that London and the South are not seen as being disadvantaged

4 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Never thought of that, it might work though.

It's a thought, - but since they would both be routed through the same wifi router, they may have the same IP address and that could throw a wobbly with the booking system software.

I may give it a try though and see what happens

Well my potential dilemma has been resolved. The local hubs in our area are now open to vaccinate the over-75 group which includes my wife and myself. However I am a volunteer in the over 70 group for the Oxford AZ vaccine. Was dosed back in August/September last year.

I contacted the trial organisers yesterday to check my status and had confirmation this morning that I received the placebo (a teenage meningitis vaccine). I can now go ahead and arrange our jabs. I was worried that if I had received the actual Oxford jab, there might be an issue with getting that fact registered on my records to provide the required "passport" information in the future.

BTW does anyone know if you can book consecutive time slots when you go online. I want to avoid booking my time slot then finding that when I revisit the site to book my wife's test, the only time slots are at significant differences from mine. A minor quibble I know in the great scheme of things but I would be interested to know if any others have knowledge.

20 minutes ago, ann141 said:

I think you are probably correct unfortunately

Yes I have been monitoring the Swiftqueue web link that deals with the vaccination hubs in my local area. Up until yesterday they were calling for all over 80's to register and book an appointment and there seemed to be quite a lot of availability at most of the centres when I clicked through to the status page for one of the centres nearest to me. The next stage in the process I believe was to register and then book an official appointment.

I didn't go any further but I can see how some unscrupulous individuals might take advantage and register and book ahead of their turn. I'm not sure how robust the checking systems are on the website to know if an individual with a particular NHS number is in the correct group being vaccinated at that time.

Strangely enough I have just looked again in the last few minutes and the centres are now calling over-75's forward(I'm in that group) to be vaccinated. Ironically the centre nearest to me now has no availability at present.

1 hour ago, Jennizor said:

Ann, just phoned TA, they have deferred the payment of the balance to April. They apologised for not advising me - makes me wonder what they would have done if I had just paid the balance!

Yes I was in a similar situation with our 1st May cruise. Our TA had a date of 9th January for the balance payment. I contacted them with my concerns about P&O possibly cancelling the cruise and they agreed to relax the balance date until 27th January and maybe a bit longer if appropriate.

I then became  aware of the new P&O policy and emailed the TA asking them if they knew about it. They confirmed that they did and have now indicated the balance date is now 22nd March (40 days before departure).

We have had a long and excellent relationship with them so I will give them the benefit of the doubt in the current climate of WFH and staff shortages.

19 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

It was the Pfizer vaccine and 23 have now died according to later news.

Was that 23 in Norway or 23 worldwide?

Yes I've just checked the local hub listing in the Nottinghamshire locality and of the 6 hubs, 5 are showing availability for jab appointments on variously 19th, 20th and 21st January. Only one hub (Kingsmill Hospital) has no availability currently.

Despite my earlier misgivings it seem that we are motoring in the East Midlands. There is alsoi talk of more local sites being up and running in the next week or so.