I just assumed that I'm far, far more likely to catch covid from someone in that packed, stuffy room than have some kind of reaction from the jab.
The vaccines | vaxxed boosted unvaxxed? New poll
- Thread starter Badunk
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Wife and I had Pfizer today, they told us next jab would be in 6-8 weeks. Delighted.
They extended their invitation to include the "eligible" from anywhere in Bolton at lunchtime, then for the final hour or so of the day they dropped the word eligible. They're repeating the mass walk-up vaccination plan again tomorrow. As you say, the point is to get doses into people.
It will be too late for some (as the vaccine takes two or three weeks to kick in) but it may save the lives of others and it may slow the spread, which potentially will help everyone.
The stats at the moment show that it's still concentrated in the younger age groups:
You can see it on the latest government heat map as well.
You had to queue 20 mins and wait for 15 mins after benefiting from one of the most important public health initiatives, for free, all designed to prioritise your health, and that was unsatisfactory.
Meanwhile people in this very thread are lamenting the fact their country can’t even get vaccines for the most vulnerable groups. Worse still, their compatriots are desperately trying to get into these stuffy rooms just to get urgent medical care, locked out by the people with a legal and ethical duty of care, after paying for an ambulance to get them there.
That’s taking first world problems to an absurd degree.
I'm going to reply to your holier-than-thou post with the respect it deserves, none. I mentioned the queuing because they packed out the place due to trying to keep it moving. The stuffy, packed room was also due to this mismanagement. Tell me smooth brwned, do you think it's a prudent and sensible thing to keep a group of people packed in an area with shite ventilation for 15 minutes?
Your second paragraph is just santimonious horseshit. You sound exactly like the guys who say you shouldn't waste clean drinking water because somewhere in Africa there's children dying from thirst. My situation and the situation you compared it to aren't in any way related. To try and make a comparison like that is completely disengenuous.
Is the Indian variant a chance to speed up herd immunity without impacting deaths or serious illness? The above chart seems to suggest vaccines are working.They extended their invitation to include the "eligible" from anywhere in Bolton at lunchtime, then for the final hour or so of the day they dropped the word eligible. They're repeating the mass walk-up vaccination plan again tomorrow. As you say, the point is to get doses into people.
It will be too late for some (as the vaccine takes two or three weeks to kick in) but it may save the lives of others and it may slow the spread, which potentially will help everyone.
The stats at the moment show that it's still concentrated in the younger age groups:
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You can see it on the latest government heat map as well.
So I gather they didn’t have any pies?
I would have reviewed it if they did.
Your daughter is suffering from long covid, but somehow you think it is better that young people get infected, than wait couple of weeks, so that they are vaccinated?
We’re all in the middle of a pandemic. It’s a global thing. If you don’t feel any connection to that then that’s why you’ve taken first world problems to a ludicrous degree.
Looking forward to next update in couple of months.
Agreed, but she caught the early (stronger) strain. The virus has evolved many times over to harm the host less. This is not a scientific opinion, it's a sort of question.
My daughter was also in a minority that never really registered on any newsworthy Richter scale, not for long anyway. Even now the clinics that are/were supposed to be looking after long covid sufferers seem to have dwindled or probably been defunded. This could be an indication long covid is now less serious.
It has not.
Any person getting the vaccine should receive it in a safe environment.
Agreed. My take is waiting 15 mins in a somewhat crowded room is a safe environment. If you were genuinely afraid of virus transmission in that moment then I would blame the media reports more than anything. It isn’t that transmissive, but caution isn’t a bad thing. Ignoring medical advice is kinda dangerous though, and the people advising you to wait 15 minutes were no less aware of the risks than you. Anaphylactic reactions are legitimately more common than getting covid while sitting in a chair a few metres from a stranger.
Surely you can see why some people would kill to be in your situation, though? It’s not even that far from home. I’ve got family friends in their 60s in Donegal that are seriously at risk and still waiting on a vaccine. Never mind South Africa, India and co...which don’t feel that far away to me, right now, in unprecedented global circumstances.
What's the rate of anaphylactic reactions? I understood them to be quite uncommon. Your statement may still be true because the UK has controlled covid well.
State of you lad.
Are we just making up facts now?
Yeah very uncommon - more details here - but much more common than contracting covid after spending a very brief period at a safe distance from the average person. The characteristics of super-spreader events should provide some clarity on that. At this point the majority of people in the UK have experienced that same 15 minute wait P-Ro is talking about. It is clearly not risk free, bringing large circulations of people into an enclosed space, but it isn't dangerous. The people designing the vaccination centres aren't stupid, and the regulations are pretty straightforward. The country is operating under a 1m+ rule, which is still pretty consertative given the average length of interaction. The post-vaccine waiting areas are much more conservative than that.
You are being quite conservative and under serving to those health care professionals that screen everyone before a jab. A vaccination site is a pretty safe place.
You're allowed to complain, but not too much, because on the risks-benefits scale the staff at the centre would have been right. Back in the early days of the vaccine rollout (when case rates were really high) they did things like leaving people sitting outside (under big marquee tops if they were lucky) for the safety check. Near where I live, the centre had a big (closed) pub carpark next door and they had a nurse roaming around it as people did their 15 minutes sat in their cars, so the pedestrians had more space - which was a luxury solution.
Today in Bolton they've been lending people big umbrellas in the queue and again to cover their seats in the monitoring time so they could wait in the rain.
Agreed. Not sure which part you were picking up on but the vaccination centres are clearly set up safely. They have to balance complete safety with the need to process large volumes of people, but they’re not even close to creating undue risks.
Just the pedantic approach from some posters
If anything the UK variant was more deadly than the original. As far as we can tell the only things making covid less harmful are the vaccines and prior infection, and some of the knowledge that the hospitals have obtained in how to treat the seriously ill. Herd immunity through infection, even if the infection only spreads through the under 40s is not just dangerous for those infected, it's an impossibility from what we've seen so far - the vaccines seem to offer better protection against mutations than prior infection does.
The room where I was supposed to wait for 15mins had about 30 seats and 60 people waiting in there, most of whom were unmasked. I really don't care about any of your opinions on whether you believe this place was safe based on what should have been adhered to and wasn't.
Getting my first shot (Pfizer) at the end of the month. My other half has a friend who is a doctor and recommended she avoid the AstraZeneca one for now.
We're given extensive and detailed information sheets about each vaccine here in Italy, and the AZ sheet said the most "at-risk" group for adverse side-effects are women under 60.
I had my first Pfizer a couple of days ago at a big vaccination centre, everyone there was 60-64 years old. Even though the Italian government said they'd be reserving AZ for the over-60s, the vast majority of people were in the Pfizer queue after they'd had their medical consultation. The powers that be seem to have given up on AZ, now they've finished vaccinating the very elderly people.
That does sound problematic. And there’s been plenty of reports of people getting infected shortly after their first dose. Which raises the possibility of transmission at vaccination centres.
To be honest, I think you’ve been getting unfair stick here. Not every centre will be run perfectly and it sounds like the place where you got the jab has some issues that need to be sorted.
I think the euphoric moment bit set people off as the concerned about a lack of distancing bits are quite reasonable.
Yeah read the unmasked bit and thats unacceptable
Speak to CCG/PALS department if it was an NHS trust that organised it or to the GP practice manager if you got it through an invite with them.
Masks are a must. Covid marshalls must be ensuring good flow through the post-vaccination waiting area. At the very least the seats should have been 2 metres apart.
What happens sometimes is family member/carer chaperones a poorly mobile vaccine recipient and if you get loads of them at once you could get scenarios like above, we've found that a few times with carer homes are have used various ways to get around it (e.g. vaccinating the really frail/poorly mobile in their cars) but the very first community centre we picked was not fit for purpose logistically and so it was changed. Nobody wants these vaccination sites to be superspreader events. In addition to picking spacious venues we do try and ensure doors open for ventilation which is why I'm usually freezing sitting near there on consenter side and prefer jabbing.
If you have concerns in the next jab, ask to speak to clinician-in-charge.
The 15 minute waiting area can become a bit neglected by the volunteers as not much going on there but their responsibility to ensure masks worn properly. Allergic reactions are incredibly rare but do happen within that 15 minute window so its important. I'm sorry for your experience but rest assured most of my friends who I've spoken to in different parts of the country including physicians have been satisfied with measures in place to ensure safety so hopefully not the norm and hope your next experience is better in terms of safety etc.
In general heavy alcohol use does reduced your immune response, including from vaccines, but there is no specific data to suggest that a beer will do much of anything.
The advice posted at the place I went to said no smoking, coffee or alcohol for 2 hours afterwards. The guy next to me went right out for a cig after his jab!
When I had my jab on Friday morning, I noticed quite quickly how brilliantly it was run. This was at the largest vaccination centre in my area and they were vaccinating around 20 people at a time (there were 20 booths with nurses at each). There was someone in the car park to greet, help you find a good space and give you your consent form. There were three people at the door who asked if it was your first or second jab and how you’re feeling that day and made sure you were wearing a mask. Then there were two more on “reception” who checked you in and told you what to expect. Following that I was seated by our current MP and knight of the realm, which I was shocked at because he has a reputation (like a lot of MPs I guess) for not doing much!
He then told me to go to my booth where a really lovely nurse eased my fears, told me about the Pfizer jab I was getting, did some things on the computer then stabbed me with the needle, all very painless, gave me my card and told me to go back to the MP, who sat me down for 15 minutes on a seat that was probably just over a metre away from the next person. Everyone was masked, everything was safe. In and out in 20 minutes max.
Thought I’d post that to show a more positive view of the experience. I suffer with quite a lot of anxiety and if sharing that helps ease the mind of someone also worried about it, then hopefully it’ll have done some good.
He then told me to go to my booth where a really lovely nurse eased my fears, told me about the Pfizer jab I was getting, did some things on the computer then stabbed me with the needle, all very painless, gave me my card and told me to go back to the MP, who sat me down for 15 minutes on a seat that was probably just over a metre away from the next person. Everyone was masked, everything was safe. In and out in 20 minutes max.
Thought I’d post that to show a more positive view of the experience. I suffer with quite a lot of anxiety and if sharing that helps ease the mind of someone also worried about it, then hopefully it’ll have done some good.
nice to hear a good story. It’s not all doom and gloom.
mine was equally as easy, albeit on a much smaller scale as it was at a pharmacy, so only a couple of people in at a time.
i got a sticker and a lolly - so well looked after!
in and out in 10-15 mins. Was told I didn’t need to wait the 15 mins as I wasn’t driving.
Well now I do feel shortchanged! A bloody sticker and a lolly? Lucky sod. Glad it all went well.
Not had any symptoms to date either and this is day three. Bit of a sore arm and that’s it. Some of my mates who blagged it early and had AZ have had a bit of a nightmare with sweats, headaches etc
I had the AZ vaccine, and it knocked me for 6. After about 12 hours I was sweating, lethargic and aching. The next day felt like a big hangover and i was freezing most of the day.
after 48 hours I was pretty much back to normal. Arm still aches 5 days later.
it is what it is, and it’s a small price to pay. I wouldn’t recommend having anything important to do the day after the jab.
I'm guessing you got AZ? The advice regarding waiting is different depending on what vaccine you receive.
That's good to hear. I was anxious going to my first appointment but everything was well organised and there was 100% mask compliance which put my mind at ease and the second time was a much less stressful experience.
yes the AZ. Just on that side of the cutoff, as I was 40 last year. Ultimately very happy to be guided by the pros issuing the vaccine.
the nurse joked I had to guard the vaccination card with my life, and people were getting mugged for them. But then this was South London…
all the details were emailed through about 30 mins later. Very smooth.
the only bit they can and should improve is by having a reminder sent through the day before and on the day.
clearly I put it in my diary, but I expect there’s quite a few no shows from people who simply have forgotten the appointment.
I'm assuming the reminders must change per system or location or something as I did get a reminder the day before, but it was the sent from the number by GP usually sends things from.