New vaccine

[yorkshirephil]

3 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Every key worker should be first.

key worker

[key worker]

 

NOUN

1. an employee who provides a vital service, especially in the police, health, or education sectors.

    

   In this context I agree, however lots of people who are currently working consider themselves key workers, and are much less at risk of dying or becoming seriously ill through covid

[zap99]

Just now, Angel57 said:

And thereby lies a problem. Where do you draw the line......

Exactly. Like many things on this subject I bet there was at least one panel of experts looking in great depth at all the vulnerable groups, those who were most likely to contribute to dealing with this crisis and they had reams of documents and statistics and advisors to help them interpret it all. A list was drawn up. There will now be those individuals who don't agree. Will there view change things ? Are they better placed to decide priorities?

[grapau27]

1 minute ago, Splice the mainbrace said:

 

I think that would make the roll out even more complicated and they couldn't guarantee the long term natural protection.

I would happily have the vaccine when it's my turn.

[Josy1953]

I found this list on the internet :

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccination_programme_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

We may or may not agree with the order and there are probably numerous other orders that could be argued asbetter but this is what we are stuck with.

[Josy1953]

2 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

How do they calculate 2.5m FRONT LINE health care workers when the NHS only has 1.4m employees?

Front line health care workers are not all employed by the NHS.  Health care is a huge employer in the UK.

[tring]

46 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

I would change the priority of the vaccine.

My sister works for the NHS, its not the number of people being admitted its the number of staff who are off isolating. Controversial i know but for me i would do the following.

 

Hospital staff.

Care home workers.

Teachers.

Any body involved in testing etc.

Then by age.

 

Yes help those who are at most risk but also keep schools open, children have lost too much education as well as parents taking time off for child care,  esp hospital staff.

 

Must try to limit the spread as well as handing out the vaccine. 

 

A very strange list IMO.  You say hospital staff and care home workers (yes I agree they are very important and now correctly have first priority), you do not include other medical staff at all though, including those who will be administering the vaccines.  It is not just a matter of individuals being ill, but having to self isolate if they have been in contact with someone who has contracted it, e.g. a work contact.

 

The elderly and vulnerable are clearly in need of the next priority for many reasons which we all know, though after the over 50's are done, key workers could follow if not in the vulnerable groups.

 

I see no reason at all why teachers should be a higher priority than other key workers who are in contact with the public, many of whom are more important than teachers, as schools could and in some places are closing, but some other workers are genuinely essential.  I live next to a couple of teachers and there have been no outbreaks whatsoever in their schools.  I also do not see why children below to a certain age are not expected to wear masks anywhere.  I think it is 12yrs, but may well be wrong in that.  I do remember seeing a lot of maskless children running around indoor spaces, yet they were clearly of the age when they could have managed and understood the reason for one and their parents could at least have kept them away from other people.  Those places include food shops, which vulnerable people have to use to be able to eat.  Not everyone has relatives to help or access to online shopping.  I can understand toddlers being exempt, as would be difficult for them to manage.

Edited January 3, 2021 by tring

[grapau27]

2 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

But who decides who the key workers are? There would be a great debate about that. As Angel says where do you draw the line.

 

The current priority list has been designed to save the most lives.

 

 

The government decided who the key workers were when the first lockdown was implemented.

As most key workers are in regular contact with the public they seem the most likely to catch or spread covid19.

[Selbourne]

14 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

How do they calculate 2.5m FRONT LINE health care workers when the NHS only has 1.4m employees?

I can’t give you the breakdown of the remaining 1.1m John, but there are a hell of a lot of front line health care workers who are not employed by the NHS. Paid care staff and hospice staff to name just two enormous groups. 

[Eglesbrech]

2 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

The government decided who the key workers were when the first lockdown was implemented.

As most key workers are in regular contact with the public they seem the most likely to catch or spread covid19.

But there would still be a debate Graham which would just cause unrest in other groups. See some of the comments above as an example.

 

The government also decided to follow the priority list which is now in place.

[Josy1953]

I think that most of us probably know people who are not considered key workers for the purpose of creating a list for vaccination but the government have decided on their list and we have to live with it.  My person is my cousin who is vicar in London, I know that many people wouldn't consider a vicar to be a key worker but I know that he is working hard to support vulnerable people in his community.

[grapau27]

1 minute ago, Eglesbrech said:

But there would still be a debate Graham which would just cause unrest in other groups. See some of the comments above as an example.

 

The government also decided to follow the priority list which is now in place.

That's fair enough.

As someone who has had covid19 if it was shown I had antibodies my vaccine could be given to someone else.

A US study showed antibodies could potentially last several years.

[zap99]

3 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

But there would still be a debate Graham which would just cause unrest in other groups. See some of the comments above as an example.

 

The government also decided to follow the priority list which is now in place.

I guess leaving it to the experts who have the relevant information may be best.

[kalos]

6 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Every key worker should be first.

 

That would be just about everyone who cannot work from home, food factory workers .

Front line key workers who are risking their lives in the NHS  are top of the list for me.

To get the list down I would automatically strike off the anti vaxers who demonstrate

and illegal  mass gatherings  from the vaccine programme.                    

[Selbourne]

No end of cases can be made for countless categories of key workers being given greater priority, but the hard fact remains that the key determinant of mortality with this disease is age. I worry about both of my daughters who are mixing with the public on a daily basis in their jobs, but the fact remains that if they get the virus they are highly unlikely to even get seriously ill from it, let alone die. I am now in the ranks of the idle retired, even though I’m only 55, so exposed to far less chances of catching it than them, but if I do get it, being over 50, male and overweight my chances are far less certain. On that basis, it makes more sense that I get vaccinated before them and they firmly agree with that. 

[grapau27]

2 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I guess leaving it to the experts who have the relevant information may be best.

The important thing is getting as many people vaccinated in as short a time as possible because having had covid19 I personally know how nasty covid19 is and I was lucky I didn't need to go into hospital.

Graham.

[AnnieC]

52 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I think you will find that a few hundred thousand throughout the world who took part in the trials did just that. A good few on here as well.

I was responding to your post to Dermotsgirl, which did not reference the wonderful volunteers, for whom I have the greatest gratitude and respect, as I'm sure does she. Please don't deliberately confuse the issue.

[batholiver]

Boris says he expects 'tens of millions' of vaccinations over the next three months. At the current rate of just 250,000 a week that looks extraordinarily unlikely, particularly as a chart in today's Sunday Times, based on officially provided information, shows large areas of the country with no vaccination centres at all, and major cities like Nottingham with just one!

 

No programme whatsoever has been started yet in this area, and all the GP surgeries have notices on their websites saying they still haven't received the vaccine they were promised and still don't know anything at all about the centre planned - or even where it is.

 

This is already showing all the usual hallmarks of failure, after the assurance that we'd vaccinate 'millions' by the end of December failed to be met, and an awful lot of people are going to find, as we are, that the vaccination originally predicted for January is likely to be delivered some time in the Spring - if that.

 

Why can't we have a bit of honesty for once?  Trust is important in this epidemic, particularly at such a critical point with the NHS potentially days away from gridlock - but trust evaporates with each broken promise.

[batholiver]

26 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I guess leaving it to the experts who have the relevant information may be best.

I wish we could leave it to the experts - but unfortunately the decisions are being made by people with no expertise in anything whatsoever.  Except perhaps self promotion.

[zap99]

3 minutes ago, batholiver said:

I wish we could leave it to the experts - but unfortunately the decisions are being made by people with no expertise in anything whatsoever.  Except perhaps self promotion.

If we don't leave it to the experts, who do we leave it to?.

[tring]

32 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

No end of cases can be made for countless categories of key workers being given greater priority, but the hard fact remains that the key determinant of mortality with this disease is age. I worry about both of my daughters who are mixing with the public on a daily basis in their jobs, but the fact remains that if they get the virus they are highly unlikely to even get seriously ill from it, let alone die. I am now in the ranks of the idle retired, even though I’m only 55, so exposed to far less chances of catching it than them, but if I do get it, being over 50, male and overweight my chances are far less certain. On that basis, it makes more sense that I get vaccinated before them and they firmly agree with that. 

 

Perhaps now is the time to try to get the weight down.  I would not be classed as overweight as such but am at the very top of the range for my height, so am doing my best to to loose what I can and not regain it by various lapses.  It is very difficult though, especially as it is not easy to get out for a long time and Christmas foods in the shops has been just too tempting.  If only all vulnerabilities could be rectified in some way.

 

My GP who retired a few years ago was quite opinionated about that and refused to refer a neighbour of ours to have varicose veins done unless she lost weight first as that was a major cause of it.  I did respect him in many ways as he would never suffer fools of any kind, but was an excellent doctor for those who bothered to heed his advice.  He trained in the RAF. 

[yorkshirephil]

[Selbourne]

29 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Perhaps now is the time to try to get the weight down.  I would not be classed as overweight as such but am at the very top of the range for my height, so am doing my best to to loose what I can and not regain it by various lapses.  It is very difficult though, especially as it is not easy to get out for a long time and Christmas foods in the shops has been just too tempting.  If only all vulnerabilities could be rectified in some way.

 

My GP who retired a few years ago was quite opinionated about that and refused to refer a neighbour of ours to have varicose veins done unless she lost weight first as that was a major cause of it.  I did respect him in many ways as he would never suffer fools of any kind, but was an excellent doctor for those who bothered to heed his advice.  He trained in the RAF. 

I am doing my best and have managed not to add any more weight through the whole of lockdown, but it is easier said than done, especially when there is a definite genetic aspect to some of it and as a full time carer I don’t have as much ‘me time’ as I would like. I have friends who eat more than me and remain slim. Life’s not fair at times. Anyway, back to the Toblerone 😂 

[Selbourne]

50 minutes ago, zap99 said:

If we don't leave it to the experts, who do we leave it to?.

KTS?

[Adawn47]

5 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

When infections increase in Yorkshire (they will, when the new variant gets a grip)

Thankyou.😒

Avril

 

[Adawn47]

4 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

By mid february most people over 65 should have been vaccinated, this will greatly reduce the pressure on hospitalization cases.

John, I'm an optimist, but the realist in me says that, given the current situation, it's highly unlikely that the top two groups will be vaccinated by mid February. I'm in the over 70's group and Frank is in the over 75's.so i think we will be waiting until maybe  late March to early April.🤞 I hope I'm wrong, but too many times I've tried to think positively only to be disappointed. I'm now trying a 'wait and see approach' much less stress.

Avril