Vaccine Queues

[mc2fool]

But it can't be denied that the age related schedule has gone out of the window.

No, it has not "gone out of the window", it has been implemented, albeit somewhat accelerated due to the shortening of the gap and the appearance of omicron.

26 October 2021 NHS delivers booster vaccine to half of eligible people aged 50 and over
30 November 2021 Almost 7 million extra over 40s now eligible for booster programme in England as gap between doses is halved
12 December 2021 NHS to roll out life-saving booster jab to people aged 30-plus
15 December 2021 NHS booster bookings open to every eligible adult

Yes, the last change from 30+ to 18+ was quick, but it still looks like an age related schedule to me.

[Hallucigenia]

I'm 42 and had my booster on the 2nd December, eligible from the 26th November. Most of my friends of a similar age here have already had theirs too having hit the 6 month mark. Not sure if we're unusually efficient or if its a regional thing but I think it's a bit inaccurate to say almost none would have had it.

You must be pretty much on the bleeding edge - 15 April was the big target for getting the over-50's done and starting with the under-50s, which they hit a few days early but not much, and then there were shortages of AZ due to the screwup with India which meant some regions were restricting it to 48 and 49 initially, 44yos in England got the text on 26 April with 40-43 "in coming days".

So you must have been jabbed pretty much in your first week, with only a 3-4 week gap to your second? Or there was local spare capacity so you got an early call? Either way, that's pretty unusual - I thought the 12-week gap was only reduced to 8 weeks in June? (10 June in NI, can't find equivalents elsewhere)

[Hallucigenia]

Thanks for that - it will help getting me started. Interestingly, I've had a booster dose (AFAIK) rather than a "3rd dose", so that rather muddles up the sequence.

I'm sure it will happen in due course, but it's the length of time which slightly worries me - knowing how many weeks consultant's letters usually take. I'm going to call the GP today, if I can. I have already emailed but no reply as yet - no doubt they are all up against it this week.

Arb.

Yeah, it's not ideal that you probably had a booster dose, but given that it's done, I guess you have to live with that and see if you can get another booster in a couple of months, I doubt they will want to take any more action immediately given that they must be absolutely swamped at the moment.

[Lootman]

Thanks for that - it will help getting me started. Interestingly, I've had a booster dose (AFAIK) rather than a "3rd dose", so that rather muddles up the sequence.

I'm sure it will happen in due course, but it's the length of time which slightly worries me - knowing how many weeks consultant's letters usually take. I'm going to call the GP today, if I can. I have already emailed but no reply as yet - no doubt they are all up against it this week.

Yeah, it's not ideal that you probably had a booster dose, but given that it's done, I guess you have to live with that and see if you can get another booster in a couple of months, I doubt they will want to take any more action immediately given that they must be absolutely swamped at the moment.

Are you saying that the booster dose is somehow different from the 1st and 2nd doses? If so in what way?

[Julian]

I'm 42 and had my booster on the 2nd December, eligible from the 26th November. Most of my friends of a similar age here have already had theirs too having hit the 6 month mark. Not sure if we're unusually efficient or if its a regional thing but I think it's a bit inaccurate to say almost none would have had it.

You must be pretty much on the bleeding edge - 15 April was the big target for getting the over-50's done and starting with the under-50s, which they hit a few days early but not much, and then there were shortages of AZ due to the screwup with India which meant some regions were restricting it to 48 and 49 initially, 44yos in England got the text on 26 April with 40-43 "in coming days".

So you must have been jabbed pretty much in your first week, with only a 3-4 week gap to your second? Or there was local spare capacity so you got an early call? Either way, that's pretty unusual - I thought the 12-week gap was only reduced to 8 weeks in June? (10 June in NI, can't find equivalents elsewhere)

Or a health care worker.

- Julian

[Hallucigenia]

Are you saying that the booster dose is somehow different from the 1st and 2nd doses? If so in what way?

I've not been paying full attention so don't quote me, but I *think* that kids and boosters are half doses, at least for some flavours of vaccine.

[Stompa]

Are you saying that the booster dose is somehow different from the 1st and 2nd doses? If so in what way?

AFAIK a Moderna booster is a half dose (as compared to the 1st & 2nd doses), for Pfizer I believe they're the same.

[vagrantbrain]

I'm 42 and had my booster on the 2nd December, eligible from the 26th November. Most of my friends of a similar age here have already had theirs too having hit the 6 month mark. Not sure if we're unusually efficient or if its a regional thing but I think it's a bit inaccurate to say almost none would have had it.

You must be pretty much on the bleeding edge - 15 April was the big target for getting the over-50's done and starting with the under-50s, which they hit a few days early but not much, and then there were shortages of AZ due to the screwup with India which meant some regions were restricting it to 48 and 49 initially, 44yos in England got the text on 26 April with 40-43 "in coming days".

So you must have been jabbed pretty much in your first week, with only a 3-4 week gap to your second? Or there was local spare capacity so you got an early call? Either way, that's pretty unusual - I thought the 12-week gap was only reduced to 8 weeks in June? (10 June in NI, can't find equivalents elsewhere)

Looking at my covid pass the first dose was 1st April, second dose May 25th, so a day off 8 weeks between doses. I hadn't realised till now how far ahead of schedule we were, although i'm registered with a practice in the NW where the average age is abut 120 so perhaps a lot of spare doses at the local GPs.

[Hallucigenia]

Looking at my covid pass the first dose was 1st April, second dose May 25th, so a day off 8 weeks between doses. I hadn't realised till now how far ahead of schedule we were, although i'm registered with a practice in the NW where the average age is abut 120 so perhaps a lot of spare doses at the local GPs.

The elderly had pretty good uptake, AIUI more likely to be an area with lots of ethnic minorities who were more reluctant. But yep, both in first invite and going down to 8 weeks, you were really early.

[Spet0789]

I should think plenty of people in their 40s hadn't had their booster yet. Now they are fighting it out with 18 year olds.

The high-risk groups have already been offered it. Almost no 40-somethings will have had boosters by now on the original plan - I know a 40-something who got their first jab on the second day they could in mid-April, got a 2nd at a walk-in after 8 weeks in mid-June - so about as far ahead as it is possible for a non-vulnerable under-50 to do it. But that means they could not booster before mid-December and in fact the earliest appointment was in January, until the 6-month criterion was relaxed and they could walk in last week.

I'm 42 and had my booster on the 2nd December, eligible from the 26th November. Most of my friends of a similar age here have already had theirs too having hit the 6 month mark. Not sure if we're unusually efficient or if its a regional thing but I think it's a bit inaccurate to say almost none would have had it.

Pretty much identical to me.

[Julian]

Are you saying that the booster dose is somehow different from the 1st and 2nd doses? If so in what way?

AFAIK a Moderna booster is a half dose (as compared to the 1st & 2nd doses), for Pfizer I believe they're the same.

Correct for adults, no idea about dosing for children.

- Julian

[Arborbridge]

Thanks for that - it will help getting me started. Interestingly, I've had a booster dose (AFAIK) rather than a "3rd dose", so that rather muddles up the sequence.

I'm sure it will happen in due course, but it's the length of time which slightly worries me - knowing how many weeks consultant's letters usually take. I'm going to call the GP today, if I can. I have already emailed but no reply as yet - no doubt they are all up against it this week.

Arb.

Yeah, it's not ideal that you probably had a booster dose, but given that it's done, I guess you have to live with that and see if you can get another booster in a couple of months, I doubt they will want to take any more action immediately given that they must be absolutely swamped at the moment.

Yes, I think they are fighting fires. I managed to have a word with the surgery and they say my GP will reply in due course. She pointed out that even if it was agreed that I am entitled to another jab, it probably wouldn't be due until January 16th - three months after my previous. Hopefully by then, things might have died down a bit.

I'm one of those dreading Christmas as there will be multiple households wanting the two of us to join in with the blooming merrymaking. Bah! All I need is a warm quiet corner, a glass of port of similar, a box of chocolates and something interesting on telly or radio. Christmas, with loads of different people, I could do without.

Arb.

[Julian]

Thanks for that - it will help getting me started. Interestingly, I've had a booster dose (AFAIK) rather than a "3rd dose", so that rather muddles up the sequence.

I'm sure it will happen in due course, but it's the length of time which slightly worries me - knowing how many weeks consultant's letters usually take. I'm going to call the GP today, if I can. I have already emailed but no reply as yet - no doubt they are all up against it this week.

Yeah, it's not ideal that you probably had a booster dose, but given that it's done, I guess you have to live with that and see if you can get another booster in a couple of months, I doubt they will want to take any more action immediately given that they must be absolutely swamped at the moment.

Are you saying that the booster dose is somehow different from the 1st and 2nd doses? If so in what way?

I just read the whole thread. At some point we might get tweaked vaccines where there is something different in the syringes but for now the difference between a 3rd dose and a booster is just nomenclature (apart from the half dose Moderna thing already mentioned). If you are immunocompromised then 2 doses might not have ever generated much of an immune response against SARS-CoV2 so the basic dosing regimen has been adjusted to be 3 doses rather than just 2 so your 3rd dose is part of the initial vaccination process rather than a booster. For most of us however the initial dosing regimen was 2 doses and that did generate a good and reasonably durable (6 months or so) immune response, at least for everything except arguably Omicron, so for us the third shot is a booster after our initial vaccination in order to counteract the waning effect of the initial 2-dose vaccination.

Note that it is not unheard of for a vaccine to require 3 doses, Hep B and HPV being 2 examples. That’s worth bearing in mind when you see/hear some quite common anti-vax sentiment along the lines of “when will this stop, will we need jabs every 6 months?” types of speculation. Possibly but we really don’t know at this point. It is possible that a third dose might provide a more long-lasting response than just 2 doses. We really don’t know at this stage, we will have to wait and see.

- Julian

[swill453]

I've just heard of "friends of friends" who haven't taken up boosters because "we're waiting for the new modified vaccine coming out in March".

Is there any official word of a new vaccine coming out?

Scott.

[mc2fool]

I've just heard of "friends of friends" who haven't taken up boosters because "we're waiting for the new modified vaccine coming out in March".

Is there any official word of a new vaccine coming out?

Scott.

"First batches of the Omicron-based vaccine can be produced and are planned to be ready for deliveries within 100 days, pending regulatory approval. Pfizer and BioNTech have tested other variant-specific vaccines as well, which have produced very strong neutralization titers and a tolerable safety profile. Based on this experience the companies have high confidence that if needed they can deliver an Omicron-based vaccine in March 2022."

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-provide-update-omicron-variant

[pje16]

I wonder if it this Scott

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-relea ... on-variant
beaten to it

[vagrantbrain]

With the rate it's spreading i'm not sure there's much of a business case for an Omicron booster as most of the world will have already had it by March

[pje16]

so let's ignore the 11m then
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over ... Dup%20jabs.
and since when was it a business case????

[vagrantbrain]

Those 11 million are doses of the vaccine developed against the original strain. As the link shows the first deliveries of an Omicron-specfic booster wouldn't be available till March.

Generally companies perform a risk-reward analysis before investing in a new product, and I don't think Pfizer or BioNtech are going to invest tens of millions of dollars in creating and mass manufacturing a new vaccine if they're unlikely to be able to sell it...

[swill453]

Although:

COVID vaccines do not need to be changed for Omicron "at this time," says Fauci

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-v ... ony-fauci/

Scott.