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I'm going for my first shot tomorrow. I work in a community for adults with learning disabilities, many of whom also have physical problems which make them particularly vulnerable. So far we have been both really careful and really lucky, and despite a few scares nobody in the community has caught the virus.
I knew that some of our people were getting early vaccination - those with Downs Syndrome, etc - and I guessed that those of us who work there might be done relatively early for the safety of our residents, but I wasn't expecting to be called in anytime soon.
I couldn't be happier. As I said we've all been so careful: I've seen nobody but my sister (also isolating for similar reasons) for months, I shop once a week, I cycle solo to get some exercise, I couldn't begin to tell you how many times a day I wash my hands ... I've been so worried about catching the virus and passing it on.
So, anyone else in a similar situation?
Its open to me to get it now and has been for a few weeks. I haven't organised it yet and will wait a couple more weeks as in my estimation I am not at high risk for a healthcare worker. Let those in the acute hospitals get it first.
Had my first dose yesterday (I’m a doctor). Feel a like a big moment. No ill effects apart from a surprisingly sore arm.
Now I’ve just got to keep my nose out of trouble for a couple more weeks until I develop immunity. Have an unfortunate colleague who tested positive 48hrs following his vaccine (obviously he picked the virus up before he got the shot).
easily
Being vaccinated does not mean yo can stop precutions. You can still get it and you can still carry it. It just reduces the risk not eliminate it
Superficial - I hope they are ok?
I’m in the “gen pop” so not expecting it for a long time. I’ve no idea whether my new role as a NHS COVID Vaccinator might put me as an essential worker when they’ve done all the top 9 groups.
Thanks tj, I'm aware of that. I don't intend to ease up anytime soon. It just feels like the first positive step for me in a long time. Workwise that is, other things are going ok - I wouldn't want anyone to worry.
’ve no idea whether my new role as a NHS COVID Vaccinator might put me as an essential worker
Damn well should be - IN Scotland they are top of the list
tjagain
You can still get it and you can still carry it. It just reduces the risk not eliminate it
Do they know that yet? I thought they didn't know about whether it stops you getting or not?
We’ve been told nothing so far.
TJ - I know you have concerns about the programme. What I know so far, we will be in Teams with professional backup, whilst responsible legally for our own work. Our training is to recognise warning signs and get help - absolutely not “have a go heroes”.
Had mine last week.
I’ve no idea whether my new role as a NHS COVID Vaccinator might put me as an essential worker
Very good chance you'll be offered it instead of chucking away a partially used vial.
I had my 2nd dose 2 days ago. Had no after effects from the 1st, but 2nd made my bones ache yesterday and my arm was so sore I couldn't lift it. All good, now though.
Think I can’t get my head round is logic of putting all the health care workers in the priority 1 group if it’s not proven to reduce transmission
I absolutely get the front line workers are at far more risk of getting it, and if I was in front line I’d be wanting it. However given we’ve repeatedly been told anyone under 50 is not going to die from it (and the governments approach appears to be vaccinate the over 50s and the rest can take their chances), it seems a bit odd that we’ve got folks working in pharmacy’s getting the jab before people I know who are 80 with numerous comorbilities
I mean my mate, fit as a fiddle, works in the part of the hospital that is COVID negative, is on list to get it shortly. As far as I can tell he’s at no more risk of getting it than any shop worker, and far less at risk than a school teacher
tpbiker
Full Member
Think I can’t get my head round is logic of putting all the health care workers in the priority 1 group if it’s not proven to reduce transmission.As far as I can tell he’s at no more risk of getting it than any shop worker, and far less at risk than a school teacher
But health workers work with people that have underlying health issues. So if it was found to reduce transmission(we still don't know but it's possibly likely), then it makes absolute sense to treat health workers even if they aren't in the covid areas. It's a disease that affects the vulnerable hardest, so kinda makes sense to start there and with the people that interact with them and work backwards.
Plus if health workers are vaccinated. More than likely will reduce absence rates in the hospitals too, which will help everyone.
Health workers get it to help prevent spreading it others particularly the vulnerable who they will be in contact with. Thought that was obvious.
Think I can’t get my head round is logic of putting all the health care workers in the priority 1 group if it’s not proven to reduce transmission
It's not proven not to, so logically we should vaccinate HC workers in case it does, rather than wait to find out.
Exactly Rob
As far as I can tell he’s at no more risk of getting it than any shop worker, and far less at risk than a school teacher
Thats not correct. Many of us work with multiple known covid cases where we have no option but to get up close and personal. Healthcare workers are the highest risk of catching it, vulnerable people are the highest risk of dying from it. More than half my colleagues caught it over 2 outbreaks at work. that includes domestics and admin support staff
Dants - I think you slightly misunderstood my post. Anyone delivering the vaccine should be right at the top of the list for getting vaccinated . Nothing to do with my reservations.
Hmmmmmmm - checking the guidance it seems to have changed slightly. IMO if we are training and preparing a large cohort of people to be doing this vaccination then it makes perfect sense that they should be vaccinated as they are a potential transmission source to the most vulnerable and also due to multiple contacts at risk themselves
As an aside - if you are a not a registered nurse administering medication under the supervision of a registered nurse by my understanding the nurse remains accountable legally for your actions. ( unless there has been some exception set up)
Getting mine tomorrow, wife had hers yesterday - both healthcare workers. Wife seems ok so far except for sore arm as expected.
My other half and I both had our last week.
Much like @Superficial neither of us had any problems apart from a ridiculously sore arm for the following couple of days!
If (BIG if) the vaccination created immunity but didn't stop someone carrying and passing it on, surely we would rely on reliable daily testing on front line healthcare workers otherwise could be increasing risk to patients?
My wife (nurse) is booked in tomorrow, most of her ward including receptionist are booked in.
tpbiker
Full Member
Think I can’t get my head round is logic of putting all the health care workers in the priority 1 group if it’s not proven to reduce transmission
But it does keep all your healthcare workers at work, rather than being off sick. They may still catch it and will have only mild symptoms and be back at work in 2 weeks rather than a longer period of sickness. Given how understaffed and overstretched the NHS currently is, that's a major priority.
Was supposed to have mine yesterday, but the clinic cancelled it. (don't know why) will get one later in the week probably.
TJ - apologies for any confusion. I wasn’t meaning any negativity or criticism of your earlier post.
I’ve no idea whether my new role as a NHS COVID Vaccinator might put me as an essential worker
Yes - working on the vaccine programme you are in a current cohort being called forward. It’s in JCVI guidance. When I find it I will link here. We are interpreting that include people volunteering on the programme too
I had mine at the weekend.
Now I’ve just got to keep my nose out of trouble for a couple more weeks until I develop immunity
thats worrying if a health professional doesn’t understand the consequences.
It is going to take months of data to know how effect the vaccine is, or whether you can still be a carrier whilst having immunity. Therefore nothing changes for the foreseeable in terms of precautions and change in behaviour
They may still catch it and will have only mild symptoms
Exactly, i.e they won't be anywhere near as likely to be seriously ill or die by catching a virus that they are right in the middle of in a hospital.
The virus doesn't completely stop you getting ill and in some cases (<5%) won't actually work but better for healthcare, care home residents etc,. to have it than say me who happily works at home and doesn't need to interact with anyone.
My wife has had the vaccine (NHS staff) and it was via word of mouth as centre was opened but not communicated well so NHS staff were all just telling each other to get down to the centre and queue up for 2 hours which she did as she is not overly healthy and was pretty ill in April with suspected Covid so I am very happy that she has had it.
No worries Dantz. I did not take it that way more that there seemed to be confusion
Oh dear
TJ – I know you have concerns about the programme. What I know so far, we will be in Teams with professional backup, whilst responsible legally for our own work. Our training is to recognise warning signs and get help – absolutely not “have a go heroes”.
For a not quite as brief a moment as it should of been I thought to myself “eh, you just shove that thing up there nose for a second, how much training do you need”
Eventually I remembered I watched Contagion yesterday and that I need to stop blurring reality and fictional media ...
Think I can’t get my head round is logic of putting all the health care workers in the priority 1 group if it’s not proven to reduce transmission
The fact is at the moment we don’t know, until people have been vaccinated and the data becomes available months down the line.
As it stands at the moment a hospital worker can get a COVID positive test result and that can potentially close a department/ward as colleagues then have to self isolate. Hopefully the vaccine will help reduce that 1 person getting the positive test in the first instance.
At the moment the vaccine doesn’t extend to back office nhs staff. I can see the logic, but what happens if an out break takes out your stores team? At that point no one gets PPE, needles etc to the frontline
Had mine a week ago, my wife is front line and also a peer vaccinator so has had her first and second dose. I'm part of the cohort that has been moved from 21 days to 10 weeks for second dose.
we've vaccinated over 50% of staff in our trust so far. bearing in mind that 10-12% can't get it for allergy reasons and approx another 10% are off sick that's not a bad number IMHO.
As it stands at the moment a hospital worker can get a COVID positive test result and that can potentially close a department/ward as colleagues then have to self isolate.
Thats not how it works round here. We are considered not to be at risk or a contact as we are in PPE all the time. Utter bollox of course but if we put all staff in contact with known covid into isolation there would be hardly an staff left
Had my first on Monday, the person administering it said "keep up the precautions you've been doing for around 3 weeks as immunity will be better then"
I said I hoped she wasn't telling everyone that as it sounded like she was saying after 3 weeks you can relax hands face space etc which obviously you can't.
The general public getting the jab need this reinforced in their minds or it'll take a lot longer to get through this
Side effects so far, mild headache cured by paracetamol. Colleagues who had jab at the same time have had chills and body aches but nothing serious. All had astrazeneca vaccine
Wife (HDU nurse) should be getting her 2nd jab today, I must say I'm very relieved for her. We're definitely both more anxious this time around with the numbers rocketing but less compliance with the guidelines.
eh, you just shove that thing up there nose for a second, how much training do you need
Seeing as I don't keep my deltoids up my nose, I'm very glad you didn't do my injections 😀
adenoids are up there though - surely that'll work ?
My Mum (early 70's but classed as vulnerable due to some recent operations) has her first jab today, the Pfizer vaccine. Her second one is scheduled in for March.
I had the Pfizer one on saturday. Slightly sore arm for a day, but all fine otherwise.
Several of my staff had the AZ one yesterday - all bloody coldy with it now!
DrP
As it stands at the moment a hospital worker can get a COVID positive test result and that can potentially close a department/ward as colleagues then have to self isolate. Hopefully the vaccine will help reduce that 1 person getting the positive test in the first instance.
And here in lies an issue. Said worker could get a -ve test but still be a carrier because we do not yet know the efficacy of the vaccine. Does it prevent you from getting ill, does it just make you less ill, does it prevent you from being a carrier - we don't know.
At the moment a +ve test invokes various safeguarding procedures however we could perhaps find ourselves in a situation where people take a -ve test to mean no risk and so said worker then infects all the poorly patients on the ward. We just don't know yet.
The problem is the vaccine as a solution has been trumpeted as there has been no other good news whatsoever but we have no real idea as to how well it is going to work in the mid to long term. Matt Hancock the other day said re-vaccination every 6 months may be necessary which doesn't say much for their confidence in its long term efficacy.
SIL has had both, but she works in a Nursing Home. MIL finally got one on Monday - 85 highly clinically vulnerable and in the 'same' Nursing Home.
Had my first last week. I felt rotten the next day, really really rotten. It seems to be the case (form a small sample) that people like me who have had a nasty dose of COVID seem to react worse to the vaccine. Not complaining though, its just one of those things.
We have had a lot of positive cases in staff and clients within three weeks of first vaccine. We are now crossing beyond three weeks since vaccinations so it will be interesting to see if we get more positive cases.
Findings on transmission by vaccinated people will be very important. If precautions are relaxed and it's still being transmitted, we just end up with a higher percentage of asymptomatic infections, which could result in higher transmission rates than before.
Some people are saying 'so what, if nobody dies or is seriously ill it doesn't matter if we're all infected' - but as I've understood it there's a risk that a large pool of infection in single dose vaccinated people could be an ideal opportunity for further mutation.
I dont see why single/double dose changes that Greybeard? My understanding was that 2nd jab reinforces longer term immunity rather than materially changing protection.
My daughter's best mate's mum had it last week - plastered it all over instagram.
50 years old, mild asthma but otherwise healthy with no underlying concerns, works from home 100% since March....an obvious candidate for the first phase I'd have thought
(oh did I forget to mention she is a senior manager in the local NHS trust)
f
Superficial – I hope they are ok?
Yes he's fine thank you! Just finished his 10 day isolation and is now back at work 🙂
I don't know if all hospital trusts are doing this, but we are also being tested twice weekly so hopefully that will identify people who could be asymptomatic carriers post-vaccine. I know it's already detected asymptomatic infection in at least one of my colleagues. Importantly, this testing program should also add a wealth of data to determine whether the vaccine is effective at preventing asymptomatic infection / transmission.
It does seem like we do (finally!) have some tools at our disposal at the moment but the numbers of patients on the wards / ITU is scary.
Mum, 80+, had 2 doses of Phizer 3 weeks apart and said it wasn't as bad for her as the normal flu vaccine but as she lives alone and it doesn't change what she can and cannot do or who she can visit or have at her house it has made no difference.
I am sure that it is defending her in some way but how is this likely to pan out in the longer run?
At what point do we decide that enough people are vaccinated to go outside and mix as normal? Do non-vaccinated people have to wear bells around their necks? If we don't know how long it's effects last will it be like "Eat out to help (COVID) out" and simply get people spreading it all over again?
Hard to plan an exit strategy from this without any reliable evidence at this point I guess