we have all the same arguments in the uk as regards vaccines in general and i suspect as we get lower down the age groups with the vaccination programme for covid it will get harder and harder.

heres hoping we can all get through and come out the other side.

stay safe my friend

 

Perhaps we could supply data from surveys in the U.S. of people who do not “believe” in evolution, and just let our foreign friends draw their own conclusions?

 

I'm sure I read recently that vaccine uptake in the U.K. Had increased from 70% at the start of Jan to around 85% by the start of Feb. I can't find the article now though.

I'm surprised (possibly naively) about the difficulties eligible people are having obtaining vaccines in other countries. Why introduce the hassle, logistics and potential bias of people having to book a vaccination slot themselves or turn up at a vaccination centre. In the U.K. you wait for your healthcare provider (NHS) to contact you with your allocated slot (I assume the nutters decline it as this stage if they so desire). It just seems to add an unnecessary level of complexity in asking people to book their own. Your either eligible at a given time and in the queue or you're not.

Personally, I'm in my 30's, no health issues so will be at the bottom of the pile. My partner works in accounts for a private ambulance company and is having the jab next week as all the employees at her company are getting it. She discussed declining the offer until her turn came around via the NHS so others in more vulnerable groups could get it first and was told if she wanted to decline it she had to sign various forms and explain to her boss why she didn't want it. In the end she's accepted.

 

On the way in to the medical centre yesterday I was talking with the outside volunteers who jokingly told me they were offering not just coronavirus vaccinations but anything else I needed, for example yellow fever or beriberi. I told them I'd had the yellow fever jab over 30 years ago and wasn't planning to go anywhere I could get beriberi. Sub-Saharan Africa is definitely out now.

 

Maybe we could start a counter conspiracy that the governments of the world don't want you to take the vaccine.Taking the vaccine will help improve intelligence and prove that evolution didn't happen, there was no moon landing, aliens are stored in area 51and the earth is flat. might stand a chance then

 

Think the 85% is what i read and referenced earlier. Promising for the uk but clearly this is a global issue. Hope you and your partner stay safe

 

Yes I had Covid and have tested for antibodies. While you may have seen suggestions that it is best to get the vaccine anyway, none of I'm aware of are based on science.

If you (figurative) believe that this vaccine will be successful, yet have some sort of disconnect about naturally acquired immunity, I'll wager you do not have a firm grasp of the science of vaccines/immunology, or something else.

I've banged this drum for months, finally there are studies backing it up, but anyone with a basic memory of what they learned in medical training knew that it was likely people who were sick and recovered would likely have a robust immune response.

 

I have no medical knowledge or training so I have nothing to disconnect, I tend to listen to the experts i respect in that regard. like Chief Medical Officers and the like.

good luck and stay safe

 

Sorry, Maybe I just had too much coffee this morning.

 

While a small cohort, I'll counter those (interesting and enlightening) articles with this:

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6529/eabf4063

 

The CDC recommends that people who were infected get vaccinated. You may not agree with this science (and perhaps you are an immunologist), but this is the recommendation by the official scientific agency in the US. I will just leave this here for people interested in reading the official recommendation,
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/faq.html

 

I have just read that the CDC and NIAID both say that those who take the vaccine get a stronger immune response than those who catch the virus naturally and therefore it recommended to get vaccinated anyway.
I'm sure your "basic memory of what you learned in medical training" trumps this for you but I will follow the published advice I think

 

beat me to it

 

I think you will be ok. I know a lot of people who got it and adverse reactions set in rather quickly. I get vertigo about an hour after my first shot, lasted 18 hours.

 

It’s also two different approaches.

Of course, if you contract COVID, you carry antibodies for the specific strain of COVID you have Contracted. BUT, not all the vaccines are based on antibody to the COVID virus. I think J&J is ( not sure) but Moderna and Pfizer for example don’t carry any COVID within the vaccines. They are targeting the proteins that help the virus assimilate into your body, not the virus itself. ( simplifying here) . So the virus is not able to get into your sistem, or not to fully integrate into your system. This is how my doctor explained it to me. That’s why these vaccines are effective against several strains.

another way to see it. Put a virus inside of a car. A normal vaccine treats the virus inside the car.... these type of vaccines target the car and traffic patterns so the virus doesn’t arrive to it’s destination.

So I would take it. Mind you, you’re right, you do have antibodies and a lesser chance of contracting the same strain again. But, what about the other strains?

 

Just got my first jab of the Moderna vaccine this morning. So far so good.

 

thank you. very enlightening

 

My mom (77) was a day away from getting hers where the entity (older folks community) emailed her and indicated they ran out of vaccine and were unsure when they would be resupplied. She then went online to sign up with her county, and as 68k down the list. They were doing about 7k/ week. Yesterday morning (2 weeks later) she got a call telling her to head on down to get her first dose. They had her go to Texas Motor Speedway, where they had 16 drive-through lanes open. She made it through with only a short wait, and got an appointment card for the second dose.

When I talked to her yesterday afternoon she indicated she only got vaccinated so she can come visit us here and in the DC area and see my son. Her reasoning was she rarely gets sick, has never had the flu, never gets shots/ vaccinations, and is great health. Of course that made me knock my head into the wall a few times. I reminded her that she had, in fact, received several vaccinations when she was a baby/ toddler, and they helped prevent her from getting a serious illness when she was a kid. I don't know what the heck they feed people in that part of Texas, but she's only lived there ~3 years now and it seems to have impacted her ability to think

My dad is 78, and is scheduled to get his first shot in 2 weeks. He is a DC resident. It took him a few weeks of trying to finally get on the list.

I live right outside of DC, and my 'city' is only getting ~1,700 doses/ week. If the supply does not ramp up it will be 3 more months until Group 1B is complete. I am sure it will be summertime before my wife and I can get vaccinated.

 

this is a perfect case of when something different than a "like" button is required.

stay positive and stay safe. good luck

 

Yikes. My wife is a fed employee who works remotely from home in Michigan, although her agency is in DC and we have a home in the DC metro (which we hope to get back to soon). But it seems to me that the percentage of "essential workers" in the DC area might be considered higher than in some other cities and states (no judgment on anything, just thinking about the feds, CDC, etc.). 1,700 doses a week ain't gonna cut it for any of the local municipalities there. The place where I got my dose this morning is approaching 3,000 per day, as long as the supply holds out.