Coronavirus update - NO MORE RESTRICTIONS

[City123]

Re: Coronavirus update

Very good but who is he? What is his profession? What does he do for a living?

Newspaper columnist

[xsnaggle]

Re: Coronavirus update

Newspaper columnist

Thanks. Makes a change to get a straight answer

[Hilts]

Re: Coronavirus update

The vaccine minister now on TV saying the same as Johnson. 13.9m vaccinations by mid Feb and all 9 at risk categories by Spring.

Lets see. Hope its not another operation moonshot.

[lisvaneblue]

Re: Coronavirus update

FFS that Welsh press conference. Ongoing discussions with pharmacys to give vaccines. Shouldnt this have all been in place already.?

I don’t think this should be generally rolled out. Community pharmacists have been well involved in the annual flu vaccination campaigns for years and do a great job. The flu jab is relatively straightforward as it comes as a ready prepared pre- loaded syringe. The Oxford jab which is the one that can be kept in a fridge comes as a 10 dose multi use vial. The pharmacist has to draw up doses from the vial using aseptic technique and once a dose has been used from the vial the other nine doses must be used within 6 hours and anything not used in this time must be binned.

I’m not sure busy high street pharmacies are the place for this type of vaccine.

[The Bloop]

Re: Coronavirus update

Has anyone on here tested positive? Both my parents in Barry did. And two of my sisters-in-law did here. Everyone OK now thankfully.

Had 2 mates who spent over a week in UHW on oxygen before Christmas. Both home now thankfully.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Re: Coronavirus update

Reading that more people died of Covid yesterday in the UK than have died from it in Australia since the beginning of the pandemic.

[xsnaggle]

Re: Coronavirus update

The vaccine minister now on TV saying the same as Johnson. 13.9m vaccinations by mid Feb and all 9 at risk categories by Spring.

Lets see. Hope its not another operation moonshot.

Did he say which spring?

[Gofer Blue]

Re: Coronavirus update

The vaccine minister now on TV saying the same as Johnson. 13.9m vaccinations by mid Feb and all 9 at risk categories by Spring.

Lets see. Hope its not another operation moonshot.

On the same programme notice how he waffled when asked when front line NHS staff would get the vaccine. I am in the 70 -75 age bracket but am effectively in self-imposed permanent lockdown anyway so would be happy to forego my vaccine for a month or two if it meant that a front line NHS nurse or medic could receive it instead. Maybe others in my situation should consider doing the same? Probably a logistical/administrative nightmare though.

[Gofer Blue]

Re: Coronavirus update

I don’t think this should be generally rolled out. Community pharmacists have been well involved in the annual flu vaccination campaigns for years and do a great job. The flu jab is relatively straightforward as it comes as a ready prepared pre- loaded syringe. The Oxford jab which is the one that can be kept in a fridge comes as a 10 dose multi use vial. The pharmacist has to draw up doses from the vial using aseptic technique and once a dose has been used from the vial the other nine doses must be used within 6 hours and anything not used in this time must be binned.

I’m not sure busy high street pharmacies are the place for this type of vaccine.

According to their spokesman, community pharmacists are supposedly all keen to be part of the vaccination programme. If all 11,000 pharmacies did take part a tremendous number of people could be vaccinated quickly. However, speaking as a retired industrial pharmacist who spent some time in retail, I don't know how they would find the time! As for the worry about aseptic technique, I hardly think there is much difference in working conditions between the consulting room in a pharmacy and a leisure centre. Pharmacists should be well aware of aseptic procedures?

Of greater concern to me is the availability of components like vials and stoppers. There are not that many manufacturers of pharmaceutical quality glass vials or stoppers, so the availability of these could well turn out to be the rate limiting step.

[xsnaggle]

Re: Coronavirus update

According to their spokesman, community pharmacists are supposedly all keen to be part of the vaccination programme. If all 11,000 pharmacies did take part a tremendous number of people could be vaccinated quickly. However, speaking as a retired industrial pharmacist who spent some time in retail, I don't know how they would find the time! As for the worry about aseptic technique, I hardly think there is much difference in working conditions between the consulting room in a pharmacy and a leisure centre. Pharmacists should be well aware of aseptic procedures?

Of greater concern to me is the availability of components like vials and stoppers. There are not that many manufacturers of pharmaceutical quality glass vials or stoppers, so the availability of these could well turn out to be the rate limiting step.

This has already been discussed. Th government has already been sourcing these and had put money towards greater manufacturing output.

[lisvaneblue]

Re: Coronavirus update

According to their spokesman, community pharmacists are supposedly all keen to be part of the vaccination programme. If all 11,000 pharmacies did take part a tremendous number of people could be vaccinated quickly. However, speaking as a retired industrial pharmacist who spent some time in retail, I don't know how they would find the time! As for the worry about aseptic technique, I hardly think there is much difference in working conditions between the consulting room in a pharmacy and a leisure centre. Pharmacists should be well aware of aseptic procedures?

Of greater concern to me is the availability of components like vials and stoppers. There are not that many manufacturers of pharmaceutical quality glass vials or stoppers, so the availability of these could well turn out to be the rate limiting step.

I agree with your comments about supply chain issues like glass vials, could turn out to be the weakest link in the supply chain, not so much for the Pfizer product as product is finished in house and production planning would account for, but maybe for third party fill and finish of the Oxford jab.

I'm not so sure about community pharmacists being engaged en masse at this point in time. Boots are setting up a few hubs at large pharmacies to vaccinate 1000 a week, but your average community pharmacy couldn't do anything like that, and when you consider a 6 hour shell life once a dose has been extracted from a vial, and the fact that the SKU is 10 vials, community pharmacists could remove one heck of a lot of stock from an already friable supply chain, and potentially waste stock too.
Additionally, unlike the flu jab where appointments can be made for anyone, or even walk in service, the Covid jab will need to be given in priority order, and how is it all monitored? Pharmacy IT systems do not link to NHS patient data. Finally, according to the PIL patients have to be given a date for their 2nd jab at the time of the first, yet another administrative issue as the pharmacist will need to be sure he has stock available for these.

All in all I think pharmacy involvement would be best at a time when vaccination is open to the general population.

[Vindec]

Re: Coronavirus update

For those who think the UK is doing badly, our vaccination programme is doing rather well by comparison with the EU:

Vaccine doses given out by EU countries

Germany - 316,962

Italy - 182,442

Spain - 139,339

Poland - 92,220

Denmark - 51,512

Romania - 41,609

Portugal - 32,000

Greece - 16,233

Hungary - 15,000

Croatia - 13,798

Czech Republic - 13,000

Slovakia - 7,201

Austria - 6,000

Slovenia - 5,934

Finland - 5,445

France - 5,000

Bulgaria - 4,739

Ireland - 4,000

Estonia - 3,188

Latvia - 2,923

Lithuania - 2,270

Malta - 1,400

Luxembourg - 1,200

Belgium - 700

Started today: Netherlands

No data: Cyprus, Sweden

Source: Our World In Data

[goats]

Re: Coronavirus update

Did he say which spring?

Spring 2022....and by then we will need a new one anyway

[Vindec]

Re: Coronavirus update

If they could do 1.3m a day. That means with supply they could have the first dose given to the entire UK population in about 2 months.

Id like to think your right. But I believe theyve managed 1.3m so far since it began.

However they say with the new vaccine things will speed up rapidly.

I'm always willing to admit I was incorrect and I was. Apologies. However, I note that on another virus thread somebody gained the same impression that the 1.1m/1.3m figure was a daily total when clearly it was the cumulative total.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Coronavirus update

For those who think the UK is doing badly, our vaccination programme is doing rather well by comparison with the EU:

Vaccine doses given out by EU countries

Germany - 316,962

Italy - 182,442

Spain - 139,339

Poland - 92,220

Denmark - 51,512

Romania - 41,609

Portugal - 32,000

Greece - 16,233

Hungary - 15,000

Croatia - 13,798

Czech Republic - 13,000

Slovakia - 7,201

Austria - 6,000

Slovenia - 5,934

Finland - 5,445

France - 5,000

Bulgaria - 4,739

Ireland - 4,000

Estonia - 3,188

Latvia - 2,923

Lithuania - 2,270

Malta - 1,400

Luxembourg - 1,200

Belgium - 700

Started today: Netherlands

No data: Cyprus, Sweden

Source: Our World In Data

I know that the German government is being criticised heavily for not sourcing enough vaccinations.