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Cheers for that. It's main source was the Red Cross but found more info on the .Gov website.
More reading to do for me I think.
Never had vaccine before. (since young childhood anyway) so main concerns are side effects things like that.
Will admit to being not keen, but then I hate taking any drug.
Yes invitations for the over 56 - 59 age groups.
Unbelievably the Dr on BBC breakfast this morning saying that some people are booking more than one slot or even three, to make sure they get an appointment. This of course is taking slots away from others. This could be because they are getting an invitation from their Dr surgery also receiving one through the post, so this could be a genuine confusion. But some really are booking in too many.
Yes invitations for the over 56 – 59 age groups.
Seems they've departed slightly from the jcvi groups as iirc that was "55 and over" in group 8. Anyone know if this is intentional or just a cock up by someone using ">" instead of ">=" in the data selection that they've then doubled down on (easy mistake in Excel ;))
“55 and over” in group 8
invitations for the over 56 – 59 age groups.
That discrepancy didn't even register when I read it.
It was 55 and over in earlier documents for phase 1, when the decision was made not to use occupation at all in phase 2 (beyond health and care workers) it had changed to 56. Might be some good maths that gave them the new banding… or it might just be an arse and elbow thing… I suspect and hope it’s the former… because it is confusing.
8 : All those 55 years of age and over
Unbelievably the Dr on BBC breakfast this morning saying that some people are booking more than one slot or even three, to make sure they get an appointment.
I'd be surprised if the NHS booking system would allow you to occupy more than one slot per NHS Number. As you say, I imagine that they are booking their slot in a more distant vaccination centre, then getting an offer from the local GP through the post, taking that up, and not cancelling the other one.
Group 8 is still 55 and over in the green book…
🤷🏻♂️
All the public communications of the past few weeks has been 56 and over.
Vaccination rates across the 4 nations seem to be pretty similar but I'm interested to see group 8 invites now going out and appointments booked. I'm 62 and according to the Omni calculator, if I was being vaccinated in England I'd be expecting it sometime after 10th March but here in Scotland it's no earlier than 15th April. Is this because ScotGov handled the Care Home thing differently and it is now giving all those second doses?
I'm group 6. Omni had my date range getting rapidly closer as time went on. Most recently 10/3 to 16/4, got it on Thursday! I think Omni might be pessimistically biased.
Out for a nice walk in the sunshine this afternoon...
"Conclusions: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was not significantly associated with either number of infections, recoveries or mortality rate of COVID-19 among European countries. Thus, it is an important parameter to be considered when implementing preventive measures to face COVID-19."
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.04.21252885v1
Doesn't rule out a protective effect, because as with any covariate, the amount of variation that is explained is likely to be relatively small.
But it was a lovely afternoon.
And for a little comfort, Belgian sewer rats did not have SARS-CoV2 infection in a survey https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.06.433708v1 in the first study of its kind. I suppose we should be thankful for small mercies.
Your dog may, however, know that you are infected https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.05.434038v1 if a scent dog. Or it can smell the rats 😉
Quiet weekend work wise???🤣
You noticed. Was catching up on the literature - currently COVID is running at 40 preprints per day. Not just an epidemic of cases! Most of which can now be summarised as "we had some serum in the fridge and tested it against any variant we could lay our hands on". A lot of heat but very little light. One paper looking at recent serum showing it neutralised wild type, and the reverse has been less true.
Last week we found that our antibody produced a small response in hospitalised COVID patients in a platform trial called ACTIV-3 (any Pharma press release with the word "UPDATE" means negative trial), but this was not deemed robust and the study was stopped. This is not surprising. It's the fourth monoclonal antibody to fail. Antivirals need to be given early to have an effect. It's hard to isolate infectious virus 10 days after symptom onset.
I recently split with my GF after nearly 5 years together. I’ve just found out she is a rabid anti-vaxxer when it comes to COVID. She is determined all the scare stories about vaccines killing people are true.
More like dodged a rocket propelled grenade there pal.
“Conclusions: Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was not significantly associated with either number of infections, recoveries or mortality rate of COVID-19 among European countries. Thus, it is an important parameter to be considered when implementing preventive measures to face COVID-19.”
If it's not "significantly associated", why is it an "important factor to be considered"?
Not sure how accurate omnicalculator is for Scotland.
I’m 62 and according to the Omni calculator, if I was being vaccinated in England I’d be expecting it sometime after 10th March but here in Scotland it’s no earlier than 15th April. Is this because ScotGov handled the Care Home thing differently and it is now giving all those second doses?
Friend of mine in Edinburgh also 62 & phoned up the COVID helpline. She was told it will be next week although she is yet to be officially contacted.
I know it divides opinion, and not wanting to restart the fight, but good luck to all those returning to school today; parents, kids and teachers. It's still not normal and I know there is a risk involved but I hope it goes well for you all.
but good luck to all those returning to school today; parents, kids and teachers.
I'll second this. A colossal amount of work has gone in to try and make a success of it.
Got one back today, the other goes back tomorrow.
Thanks for the advice all. I called the volunteer line to ask whether I should book a vaccination through the NHS booking system and they essentially said "erm, dunno - maybe call 119 and ask them", so I did that and they essentially said "erm, dunno, but if you bring proof that you're doing something relevant then it'll be fine", though they couldn't really confirm whether being a steward volunteer was relevant. So I'm still a bit torn - it seems 99% certain that printing out the email from the volunteer service that says "you are in a priority group because of your role", along with the NHS guidance that says volunteers definitely count, would pass any checks on the day. But I'd still feel pretty queue-jumpy if I don't have any shifts booked by then (or indeed ever!), especially as there's definitely an element of subconscious selfishness involved in my thought processes. Hey ho. Happy Monday everyone! My kids are back in (primary) school today. One very happy about it, one not really.
My kids are back in school today and it felt really good to see all the smiles on the kids, parents and teachers faces! Back home now and I'm going to miss them loads for the next few hours, but might get more work done!
Gray - you absolutely are entitled to a jab for stewarding at vacc sites. All our SJA volunteers get the same. You come under the “front line Healthcare” bracket now.
In my area we were given a link to a separate booking site, but I think it may now just redirect you to the main booking website where you can say you are healthcare. Nobody at a vacc site will even bat an eyelid about you getting a jab. Anything showing your volunteer status will be fine - if they even look!
It has been proven already that there is a reduction in transmission from vaccinated people. You will be coming into contact with some vulnerable unvaccinated people, so you are getting it for them as much as yourself.
If you are struggling to get an appt booked PM me and I’ll see if I can find you a link.
Well done for stepping up to help 👍
WRT schools, I’m concerned, but think it’s correct. My only thought would be “should we wait to Easter?”
My son has been struggling for motivation the last few weeks. He us bright and enjoys school, has a laptop freely available, and his school provides full online lessons. If he is struggling many will be a lot worse.
Our daughter has just completed her mocks, so won’t really see much educational benefit on return, as they would normally be prepping for exams she won’t be taking. She really needs some interaction though as a 16yo girl. She is quite shy and will find it tough to reintegrate with the outside world.
If it’s not “significantly associated”, why is it an “important factor to be considered”?
Which is why I quoted it 😉 . Scientists. Objective? Paul Feyerabend is probably closer to the way science really works than Karl Popper's view of falsification. Feyerabend was Popper's student. I was fortunate enough to attend a course on Philosophy of Science in my degree taught by Popper just before he died.
@dantsw13 - thanks, I've just booked myself in for the site near me for a couple of weeks time.
Numbers still going in the right direction again today, under 5000 cases in a long time.
What sort of rise in cases are we likely to see now schools are back? If we see a certain rise, will the government be too cautious and push the dates out?
Going from last year, school transmission isn’t measured/noticed… it’s only on later community transmission resulting in symptomatic cases that the rise is picked up. What difference lateral flow tests on schools will make this time, who knows. Some schools around here only have a 25% opt in from parents so far.
I’d suggest that is possibly evidence of their general Covid attitude, and explains why some areas never fall.
My area is really interesting cases wise. Rural East Sussex.
We were lowest in the country for the whole pandemic up until November when the Kent strain hit us. Then Hastings was the worst in the country over the 2nd spike. Now we are lowest again.
I don’t think schools will close again now fully stop. It’s the “get vaccinated ASAP & take your chances with long Covid” plan now. Boris wants to claim victory by summer no matter what.
I’d suggest that is possibly evidence of their general Covid attitude,
That attitude is common in areas where people can not afford to be told to isolate and not go to work.
and explains why some areas never fall.
I agree.
You've only got to look at Leicester for the worst case of numbers never fall!
Kelvin - I agree that cost is a big issue. Silver spooners in govt just don’t understand.
I don’t think schools will close again now fully stop. It’s the “get vaccinated ASAP & take your chances with long Covid” plan now. Boris wants to claim victory by summer no matter what.
We have to move on at some point.
Went back to school to get tested and it seems like a massive operation. Test wasn't as bad as I thought it would be which was nice. Back home in time to go out for a ride.
Larry - that is true. How much benefit will the kids get in 3 weeks before Easter, vs how much lower will cases be then?
I don’t claim to be right or wrong, but I am nervous.
How good is the govt record on getting it right on these things?
Opening for 1 day post Xmas and sneering at the opposition before a complete u-turn?
Nervous? Or cautious? Either way, I think we all should be…
He makes it sound like someone else came up with this plan.......
So what does this really mean? There seems a collective sigh of relief at the current rapid drop of deaths and cases, but now we're to expect a rise again.
Ok, so we need to get back to "normal", but are we then to have to get used to thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths per day? I guess this happens with the Flu and its become a background issue (sadly) but i fear wandering around in an immediate post pandemic society (we arent even there yet) is a high anxiety situation.
Kryton - hopefully the vaccine programme has broken the link between cases/admissions/deaths.
Cases may* rise, but this time it doesn’t mean necessarily more admissions and certainly not the deaths.
Chris Whitty explained it when the roadmap was released:
Most deaths in the top 4 groups. A lot of the hospitalisation come from the other 70+ categories.
The school opening date was set to be 21 days after all the 70 y/o had been jabbed, so the vaccine immunity has kicked in.
Add in the fact that vaccines do reduce transmission to a degree, and all the time our position gets better. We are turning Coronavirus into a flu-like disease we can live with.
Well, that’s the plan anyhow. Hopefully masks & testing in schools will also help.
There seems a collective sigh of relief at the current rapid drop of deaths and cases, but now we’re to expect a rise again.
I would be very surprised if there was no rise following a relaxation of lockdown. Hopefully vaccination will be a mitigating factor and we won't see a repeat of the massive peak which has just passed. Will there still be hospitalisations and deaths? Yes of course.
Less hospitalisation and a lot less deaths. But yes, still some.
In normal times 1700 people die every day in the U.K.
13 women die of cervical cancer each day I heard on R4 today.
We certainly haven’t/won’t eliminate coronavirus. I do see return to school as the first stage of learning to live with it. I certainly won’t be sprinting to a pub as soon as it opens though. Contacts will be far less than previously even when restrictions are lifted.
Thanks dantsw13, I hadn’t linked that plan up in my head, that’s encouraging. I think at least people with above average generalised anxiety e.g. me will be wearing masks, avoiding mixing and crowds on the tube etc for some time yet.
I think its all well and good until someone gets covid and the has long covid to deal with. Tell that to the teachers that risk catching it. 3 weeks to mingle and 2 weeks without schools testing over easter potentially means a increase of positive cases in the first week return from easter. Bojo and chums claim summers here and it will be fine. They dont care about the new cases just reduction on the NHS load. The number of deaths of 1700 whilst not good makes worse reading when you add the covid deaths on top. 4.7k today makes me very sad
The number of deaths of 1700 whilst not good makes worse reading when you add the covid deaths on top. 4.7k today makes me very sad
4.7K cases, not deaths. Deaths today was 65
I would imagine kids will need to have a LFT the day before returning after easter.