Me, surprised there is anyone under 40 left on this forum 😲

Tried to book mine in Bristol today at 7am as soon as it opened but only two centers taking bookings and end of next week onwards.

Thought there were 19 places in Bristol doing them – is this because they aren’t offering us the AstraZenica maybe? Or just everywhere else fully booked already?

I’m 39 in Scotland and the 40 plus group only just having theres next week

Had an invite on Tuesday, 35. Guess Leamington is a bit further ahead.

do they contact you to tell you this, or are you just supposed to know? the missus in scotland (36) is being jabbed early june – i’m in england and 34, so hopefully can’t be too far away!

I think it’s down to your local area, but if you don’t phone them, eventually they contact you before opening up to the next cohort.

do they contact you to tell you this, or are you just supposed to know?

Think it varies depending on your GP. Anecdotally older age groups got called, maybe because they’re less likely to just crack on with sorting out an internet appointment.

@vanilla83

Tried to book mine in Bristol today at 7am as soon as it opened but only two centers taking bookings and end of next week onwards.

I am in Keynsham and struggled to get one locally that would also allow me to book a second one. I ended up having to have my first jab at the Bath & West Showground (loads of availability) and my second one is in Longwell Green

Just booked mine for tomorrow. Hopefully don’t end is as rough as when I actually had COVID 🤞

Curious though. Seeing as we are allowed an alternative to AZ if we want. How many of you will take it and what preference have you got?

Pfizer or Moderna?

If the alternative, why? Because of the blood clot issue or because you feel they are ‘better’.

I really don’t know what to choose.

Had my second in March, keep up at the back!

I really don’t know what to choose.

There are a lot of people around the world not lucky enough to be offered any vaccine at all, just take whatever they give you.

There are a lot of people around the world not lucky enough to be offered any vaccine at all, just take whatever they give you.

I appreciate that and intend too, but offer people an option and it’s natural to question which is ‘best’ and whether there’s a benefit to one over the other or whether this is just an exercise in keeping people happy after all the clotting headlines.

You’re not “offered” an alternative like it’s a choice, you’re offered an alternative and you’ll take the one you are offered.

Makes sense. I didn’t realise that was the case. I assumed it was a case of you can have one of the alternatives if you wanted.

Like I said. I would have had AZ and still will if that’s what it was.

Yep, what footflaps said, I skipped over that by saying

It’s still a very small risk, but now larger than the risk to you of catching COVID-19.

The age at which the balance of risk changes will (hopefully) creep up over time.

It’s why there is no longer mass smallpox vaccination (although there are stockpiles in case of an outbreak) because the small risk posed by vaccination would be larger than the risk posed by smallpox.

Curious though. Seeing as we are allowed an alternative to AZ if we want. How many of you will take it and what preference have you got?

Pfizer or Moderna?

I had AZ with a big smile on my face, and nothing but gratitude in my heart, but if I’d had the choice and assuming it didn’t mean a delay in getting it etc I’d probably say Pfizer.

Blood clots whilst very very rare are a risk, and you can reduce that risk with the others.

The bigger reason, whilst Pfizer and Moderna are confident their vaccine doesn’t need to be modified for any current known strains, including the scary sounding “double mutant” Indian strain. AZ hasn’t made the same claim as far as I know.

I only pick Pfizer over Moderna as its been around longer (well, longer in Covid times) and it’s more likely a new, otherwise unknown dangerous side effect will have been found by now.

That said, IRL we have two vaccine centres local to me, 1 is huge, not quite purpose built but less ‘field hospital’ than the other, it can deliver 3000 jabs a day and is rarely at full capacity, they give the AZ and you can usually get in the same day if you call from any age group (over 30) The other is the first out of hospital site, it’s much smaller and was set up initially for NHS staff, it has the kit to give the Pfizer but it’s about a 10 day / 2 week wait.

You’re not “offered” an alternative like it’s a choice, you’re offered an alternative and you’ll take the one you are offered.

I think this may vary by area.

I am 39, had my first jab yesterday, was contacted by my GP to arrange a date/time (weirdly also got an SMS from NHS today after the event), and had a choice when booking between Pfizer and AZ.

I chose Pfizer since I’d heard the AZ blood clot risk went up a bit v.s. the COVID risk for the under 40s, as above.

I would have had AZ just as happily, but since I had to choose I went with Pfizer.

The ‘choice’ thing, yes you get whatever vaccine has been distributed to the site you are booked in to on the day. If they have taken a booking for a <40 year old, it won’t be AZ on that site on that day but it could be either of the others, you just get what you are given.

Bristol I believe only has Ashton Gate and a few other centres (Bedminster, Longwell Green?) because for England the GPs were ramped up for Groups 1-9. Once they have had their second doses, everything should move to the mass vaccination centres. So if you use the NHS website to book (where you book both appointments together) the GP led sites aren’t available to you. If you ignore it, the GP might contact you to ‘mop up’ patients who haven’t taken up the offer in some time, and at that point you might go to the GP or a pharmacy site. It does seem Ashton Gate is very busy (we couldn’t book for 40-41 year olds) but also they are now managing different vaccinations in the same centre, with AM/PM or different days for different groups.

For those older than 40, if you get given AZ do make sure you have paracetamol in the house and take it as soon as you get shivery, it does work.

when I had mine (44) a few weeks back, I booked originally through the NHS site but my GP phoned me before the NHS appt and offered me one at the surgery 5 mins from my house rather than a 2 hour round trip to plymouth. so i cancelled the NHS one.

wife(39) has just booked hers for saturday in plymouth via NHS.

Blackburn with Darwen have now retracted and said over 18s with other conditions as per England guidelines. Incidentally I booked mine via the website as soon as I could (I was 49) got an appointment 3 weeks later, got message from my docs a few days later, could probably have been earlier if I’d waited ironically. I had AZ, I is not dead and I is more than happy. All the vaccines carry some clotting risk, it’s all very low risk, you’ve lot more chance dieing in a car accident on the way (made up risk but you get the point, dont worry about the clot risk if youre overweight, smoke, drink excessively or have a poor diet, you’ve got bigger risk factors you can actually do something about, I know I have, losing 9 Kg since Christmas realising I was personally increasing my covid risk).