Oh how they ridiculed the AZ jab.
The fucking workhorse of this entire pandemic, now showing itself to the rest of Europe as the best of the bunch.
But it was cheap, you see, didn't fit the agenda.
I don't think 65% is much less than ours - I heard somewhere that we've 68% of the population double jabbed, but the key could be the over 60s as you say. Under 80% is worryingly low
Has anyone else fallen into the hole of having their first 2 jabs quite early but now they aren't old enough to have the booster? I had my second jab on April 29th, my Mrs works in HR for a social care company and in Feb was offered a chance at spare vaccinations for office employees and friends. We were both put on the list and so I had my first jab early Feb.
The problem now is I'm 7 months down the line, I'm 33 and I have no health conditions that will allow me to get the booster but surely my protection will be low? I do have a high BMI (33) so I'm slightly more at risk than others my age who also probably just had their second jabs within the last few months.
I'm tempted to ring 119 but everything I've read says no. I've heard people say you can go to walk ins but the nearest one is 10 miles away and then they apparently ask you for proof of eligibility?
I've just rang them and it's a no. They asked why I had it early but unless there's health reasons then I'll have to wait until it comes down to the over 30's group.Im old enough to get the booster but im in the "6 month" hole. I cant actually get it for another 2 months.
Totally agree on your comments on Macron - spiteful actions to save his political career in my opinionI have always been pretty uncomfortable with the actual brand of a vaccine becoming 'a thing'. I've had numerous vaccines over the years, yellow fever, flu etc etc and never once have I known nor cared which pharma company made the jab. One of the most distasteful parts of this pandemic has been the commercial interests clouding the vaccine rollout and making it less optimal than it could have been.
I'm right on the cusp of 39/40 and my first two jabs were AZ, which is actually what I wanted despite all the talk and scaremongering around blood clots and to-ing and fro-ing about whether people my age should have had it. No, particular reason, call it gut feeling but I'm still glad I did and would happily choose an AZ booster if it was an option.
Macron has blood on his hands and should be ashamed of himself for using a life-saving jab as a political football.
Ah got you, thought you meant you had see themI don't know. That's why I was asking.
I suspect it's down from nearly all to maybe 50/50 now the majority are vaccinated but I've not seen any figures.
Totally agree on your comments on Macron - spiteful actions to save his political career in my opinion
Re commercial interests - had there been no commercial interest in producing a vaccine we wouldn't be in a position to have as many vaccine options at our disposal right now. These companies also do it for the kudos of being the first to market as you couldn't buy the publicity that Pfizer, Moderna and Biontech have gained through this. Theory is more capital expenditure for ongoing research into other treatments and I see Pfizer are negotiating a cost price arrangement for it's promising anti viral pill for poorer countries - Vaccine and anti viral (similar type to the hiv one) together should spell an endgame for this pandemic.
For me a few of the silver linings we have had through this shitstorm is that the regulators had to work at a very accelerated pace compared to the normal 10 year average to get regulatory approval for a vaccine and hopefully the parallel analysis used for covid during trials will allow them to reconsider analysis/testing on promising existing/future medicines in the pipeline that will change a lot of peoples lives . Also good to see a new type of vaccine be proven to be very effective in the field of immunology with mrna technology which can be extended into the field of cancer treatments. This would easily have taken a decade or so under normal conditions to see the light of day.
Yes, these companies are accountable to their shareholders first but there are also benefits with big pharma that have allowed us to be where we are today.