Jabbed, jabbed and thrice jabbed

[MrFoolish]

For my second jab I had a long drive to a nearby town, only to find a note on the door saying it was closed.

Now for my booster, I get a text from the NHS saying to book it. But my GP's website says to wait to hear from them. Of course, you cannot get through on the phone.

The whole booking system is a shambles and someone in government should be co-ordinating something better.

[Mike88]

Most of us knew who the previous vaccine Minister was but I bet, without googling, nobody has a clue who the present incumbent is. The booster roll out is a shambles and the person in charge needs to get a grip.

[Hallucigenia]

Yesterday I got a text inviting me to get a booster, so I leapt on line and made an appointment at a vaccination centre about ten miles away for this coming Monday afternoon.

Coincidentally I drove past said vaccination centre yesterday anyway, around midday. The place was all locked up without the slightest hint of any activity, or I'd have tried for a 'walk-in' regardless. All very curious.

Not really - I would assume the limiting factor for jabs is not locations. To have a functioning vaccination centre you need supplies of vaccine, suitable freezers to put them in, other support infrastructure - IT etc, people to do the jabbing (and registration etc - which relied to an extent on volunteers who may not be available at all times) - and a place for it all to happen.

If any one of those isn't in place, the doors will be closed.

It's not clear what the problem is at the moment, but I rather suspect it's vaccine supplies as much as anything, plus a general winding down of the vaccination network since the summer. To take one example, I took someone to the (further-away) big "regional" jabbing centre in May, but by the time of their second jab, that big centre had closed and instead they were just doing a day here and a day there in smaller sites like village halls that were closer. I imagine part of that was a factor of freezer availability (and changing the requirements so that Pfizer no longer needed -80°C freezers for short-term storage will have helped that process massively), but also an element of "going to the people" to try and get the people who had travel problems. It sounds like you have encountered a bit of that, they're now doing a day here/there at more local sites, rather than a 7-day mega-jabbery.

But they have to find a way to match the intensity of the jabbing programme of 6-9 months ago, and it feels they're not quite ready to go back to that.

[csearle]

For my second jab I had a long drive...

You're not a GP by any chance are you? C.