Covid vaccination.

[nukecad]

NE and Cumbria GP's and Hospitals/Hubs have been very sucessful at vaccinating people, and praised by the PM and others for their good work.

BBC Look North has just reported that as a reward GP's have now been told they will only get half as much vaccine for the next few weeks - to allow other, less efficent, areas to catch up. (Apparently London is lagging woefully behind the rest of the country).

No doubt this rationing will be blamed on a shortage of vaccine rather than an attempt to 'even-up' the regional figures by holding back vaccinations in well performing areas.
That would seem to be a short sighted policy as no doubt overall vaccination rates will drop.

Also:

There will be a new £800 fine for people attending house parties of more than 15 people in England, Home Secretary Priti Patel announces

What a stupid announcement! - No doubt the covidiots will read that as saying that parties of up to 15 people are allowed.

Even when things have started to look like they are improving the government still manages to show it's incompetence on a daily basis.

[StarBright]

There is a shortage of the pfizer vaccine because they are slowing/stopping production to build/extend how many vaccines they can produce because obviously the world needs it. They decided by doing this although people won't get as many or any vaccines now they will produce many many more than they can now.

Totally agree Nuke, do not understand why they are not fining anyone who is not from the same household or in a legit bubble. Fining will never deter the people who organise or attend these party's. The fines will be taken out of there benefit money or taken from there wages so they will live on a bit less than they normally do. That's not going to hurt them enough to make them stop.

I think they should show them film of a critical care ward see how people are gasping for breath or knocked out on machines. But there again would even that get to them? Perhaps the only thing that would stop them would be seeing a family member or friend or loved one gasping for breath

[beau]

To be honest I would prefer the Oxford one as the first jab gives a higher protection rate than the others. Then again any of them are appreciated if they can protect me from this dreadful virus.

[nukecad]

Here is the BBC news report:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-55755529

"To ensure all of those people in the top priority groups can get vaccinated quickly, targeted deliveries are being made to areas where there are more people left to vaccinate in the priority cohorts."

"Of course we've got to make sure that vaccination programme is fair right across the UK, and some parts of the country, including parts of the North East and parts of Yorkshire, have gone really fast early on, which is terrific," said Mr Hancock.

So it's not about shortages, its about letting the areas that have been slower to vaccinate catch up.

In fact there is no mention of shortages anywhere in the article.
It all points to an organisational issue rather than a supply issue.

You can understand the desire to get all the top priority group vaccinated first; but is holding back areas with higher vaccination rates really going to speed up the slower ones?
Or is it just making everyone go at the same pace as the slowest? (To avoid awkward questions about why they are inefficient).

[beau]

I have read that our local MP is making waves because our area is not receiving the vaccines it should and are having to cancel appointments and suspending inoculations for a day or more at a time.

[StarBright]

Sorry Nuke,

You said: No doubt this rationing will be blamed on a shortage of vaccine rather than an attempt to 'even-up' the regional figures by holding back vaccinations in well performing areas.

There is two parts to this, yes they are pushing the vaccines to the area's that have had none or very little supplies because there is little point in having the who should be vaccinated first scale if half the country are vaccinating the lower groups when some of the first groups are still very vulnerable.

The second part is last week in the press & on the 24/7 news channels it was reported that the pfizer company are stopping/scaling down production now so they can make the production process much bigger & can make & send out lots more after the changes have happened which means that there will be less/none of the pfizer drug available now or in the next few weeks while this is being done so yes there is also a shortage of pfizer vaccines as well.

Edited to add link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...pfizer-vaccine

[StarBright]

Elderly close family member has had a call from the GP asking if they want the vaccine. They are only doing it two days next week & not where our GP is. It's two different area's around us that family member can't get there them self. So calling another close family member who drives to see if they can get time off work to take them.

Yes they are all set for next Thursday morning. So our area is now on the over 70's & Vulnerable people

[scotleag]

Sorry Nuke,

You said: No doubt this rationing will be blamed on a shortage of vaccine rather than an attempt to 'even-up' the regional figures by holding back vaccinations in well performing areas.

There is two parts to this, yes they are pushing the vaccines to the area's that have had none or very little supplies because there is little point in having the who should be vaccinated first scale if half the country are vaccinating the lower groups when some of the first groups are still very vulnerable.

The second part is last week in the press & on the 24/7 news channels it was reported that the pfizer company are stopping/scaling down production now so they can make the production process much bigger & can make & send out lots more after the changes have happened which means that there will be less/none of the pfizer drug available now or in the next few weeks while this is being done so yes there is also a shortage of pfizer vaccines as well.

Edited to add link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...pfizer-vaccine

I think this is right. If all that was needed to increase vaccination rates in say London for example is to provide more vaccines then there would be no need to reduce supply to the North-East if ample supplies were available. By doing it that way govt are more or less admitting that supply either is or they think may become an issue. At any rate it's certainly an admission they can't guarantee supply rates going forward.

[spencer69]

Hi Beau and Starbright, TY for putting mind at rest. I was always thinking that if they had included any appointment/booking sytem for vaccination, that it would be pretty silly to include this with the 'normal' 8 page letters that we receive...but silly & tory 'govt' go hand in hand!

I am sure we would have received NHS letter or text/call from our GP's, who we are very very lucky to have, even in these times! So, will just accept that we have not yet been reached and are still on system to receive date for appointment.

Again, Thank you both for putting mind at rest. Take care.

[nukecad]

Sorry, but I can't accept that the discrepancy is down to some areas getting vaccine when others aren't.

Do you realy think that London would not be getting it's share of vaccine when the rest of the country was?
(We all know that London is always at the front of any queue).

As noted in this Evening Stardard article from an hour ago:
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/heal...k-b900819.html

When asked by the Standard earlier in the week about why vaccine numbers distributed were lagging behind the rest of the country, a spokesman for the NHS in London said: “The NHS coronavirus vaccination programme, the biggest in the health service’s history, has got off to a strong start, with hundreds of thousands of Londoners receiving their first vaccination against Covid.

“London is getting its fair share of vaccine supply for the priority groups we have to vaccinate by mid-February.”

So they are getting the vaccine they need to give vaccinations, they are just not vaccinating as quickly as other areas.

Admittedly if they did get their fingers out, whilst the other regions continued at their current pace, then we might start running into shortages of vaccine.
As it stands the efficient vaccination systems set up in the Midlands and North now have to run at half capacity while waiting for the South to catch up.