Coronavirus

[Caledonian Craig]

1 minute ago, Lamia said:

The vast majority of the Scottish population lives in the Central belt so that really doesn't become a factor in the early stages

But we are talking about the whole of Scotland. Northern Ireland is very small and no real remote areas as a result. Scotland has the Highlands and Islands that are very remote.

[Lamia]

1 minute ago, Caledonian Craig said:

But we are talking about the whole of Scotland. Northern Ireland is very small and no real remote areas as a result. Scotland has the Highlands and Islands that are very remote.

That doesn't stop us ramping up the rollout at this stage 

[Caledonian Craig]

2 minutes ago, Lamia said:

That doesn't stop us ramping up the rollout at this stage 

It does hinder things though.

[Lamia]

Just now, Caledonian Craig said:

It does hinder things though.

I am not saying it doesn't 

[wee-toon-red]

1 hour ago, Lamia said:

I am not saying it doesn't 

What are you saying? It shouldn’t be a competition but you’re posting competing numbers. The geography makes rollout harder in Scotland but it should still be ramped up regardless?

I’m honestly not seeing your point other than you want people to be vaccinated more quickly but other than a pretty blanket criticism of how it’s being done in Scotland, I don’t see what you’re specifically asking for.

[AlfieMoon]

I tend to think everyone’s opinions here about the vaccine rollout have an element of truth and relevance. 
 

As Orraloon said, all UK nations having vaccinated between 10-13% of population is not a huge variance. 
 

I think looking at the individual day figures - where you see large spikes and big numbers for England - combined with the media hysteria being created about the whole process and Scotland not being fast enough - all creates a level of frustration and/or anxiety in some. 
 

This is without any of us having any real appreciation of the underlying data, logistics and process. There’s surely complexity from geography and reduced population density. When you get into the supply chain then assuming vaccines arriving via Dover (possibly) then England already has a head start there. I’m sure I also heard someone say that vast majority of vaccines in Scotland have been Pfizer - which is more complex to manage, store, breakdown and distribute. Not sure if that’s the case as I’ve not seen numbers of Pfizer vs AZ. 

 

If you look at the 7 day figures it does give confirmation that Scotland is ‘ramping’. It’s possibly a better indicator of progress. 


There are, however, relevant criticisms for ScotGov. It seems strange that mass vaccination centres weren’t ready. Additionally, I think they’ve had some criticism for the vaccinator recruitment being considerably more complex than what England has. Having heard from someone applying for that post, it does seem a valid criticism. I’m sure Sturgeon answered a question about it the other week but don’t know if it has progressed but again, that’s something that will impact capacity. 

[Lamia]

1 hour ago, wee-toon-red said:

What are you saying? It shouldn’t be a competition but you’re posting competing numbers. The geography makes rollout harder in Scotland but it should still be ramped up regardless?

I’m honestly not seeing your point other than you want people to be vaccinated more quickly but other than a pretty blanket criticism of how it’s being done in Scotland, I don’t see what you’re specifically asking for.

I have explained what I am meaning and what I want to see.

I want this chart to start trending upwards as promised before now by the Scottish Government and not remain flat as it has been. At this rate it will take 10 months and that's just working from the 1st dose numbers. As I said hopefully that will start to happen from tomorrow.

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2021 by Lamia

[Toepoke]

Captain Sir Tom in hospital with Covid.

Not sure if it's connected to him flying to Barbados for the cricket last month?...

 

[Lamia]

57 minutes ago, AlfieMoon said:

 

 

If you look at the 7 day figures it does give confirmation that Scotland is ‘ramping’. It’s possibly a better indicator of progress. 


 

I would describe it as increasing rather than ramping up. As you can see from the chart I posted there is a slight 7 day increase but it is pretty flat so hardly ramping. It is consistent though which the other nations are not. 

[phart]

 

[bonzo]

6 minutes ago, Toepoke said:

Captain Sir Tom in hospital with Covid.

Not sure if it's connected to him flying to Barbados for the cricket last month?...

 

Seen that, he was in hospital with pneumonia don't know if he caught covid in there.

[Lamia]

1 minute ago, phart said:

 

How are they disentangling the effects of lockdown from this?

[phart]

Just now, Lamia said:

How are they disentangling the effects of lockdown from this?

The curve is quadratic not linear. It's all explained in the super long twitter thread I posted.

Basically you see a straight line on a log graph, however the trend is bending making it quadratic i.e. it's bending more and more as time goes on.

Obviously it's within certain confidence intervals and they want it to run on a bit more, vaccines are just one explanation but the curve is following the predicted path if vaccines in the over 80's were beginning to take affect.

[exile]

Hmm, on R4 there, UK Govt claiming a milestone of "offering" vaccines to all care home residents in England. Sounds good. But presenter doesn't ask what the actual % given their first dose is. 

[Orraloon]

14 hours ago, Lamia said:

Anyone know what happened to the over 55's flu vaccine's promised for Nov/December?

Have you contacted your GP practice? They are more likely to know better what is happening in your local area than anybody on the TAMB.

They started the over 60s at the start of December. I know a lot of folk between 55 and 60 who have already had it. Some of them paid for it themselves, right enough. You can still get it if you want it. 

[Orraloon]

12 hours ago, AlfieMoon said:

I tend to think everyone’s opinions here about the vaccine rollout have an element of truth and relevance. 
 

As Orraloon said, all UK nations having vaccinated between 10-13% of population is not a huge variance. 
 

I think looking at the individual day figures - where you see large spikes and big numbers for England - combined with the media hysteria being created about the whole process and Scotland not being fast enough - all creates a level of frustration and/or anxiety in some. 
 

This is without any of us having any real appreciation of the underlying data, logistics and process. There’s surely complexity from geography and reduced population density. When you get into the supply chain then assuming vaccines arriving via Dover (possibly) then England already has a head start there. I’m sure I also heard someone say that vast majority of vaccines in Scotland have been Pfizer - which is more complex to manage, store, breakdown and distribute. Not sure if that’s the case as I’ve not seen numbers of Pfizer vs AZ. 

 

If you look at the 7 day figures it does give confirmation that Scotland is ‘ramping’. It’s possibly a better indicator of progress. 


There are, however, relevant criticisms for ScotGov. It seems strange that mass vaccination centres weren’t ready. Additionally, I think they’ve had some criticism for the vaccinator recruitment being considerably more complex than what England has. Having heard from someone applying for that post, it does seem a valid criticism. I’m sure Sturgeon answered a question about it the other week but don’t know if it has progressed but again, that’s something that will impact capacity. 

I think this bit is a big part of the problem. Some folk are getting caught up in the media hype about how the vaccines (especially the one "invented in good old blighty using good old British ingenuity") are going to be our saviour and get us out of this pandemic really quickly. (And, we are going to be better at it than them damned foreigners.) Despite being told on an almost daily basis that this isn't the case, they keep on pushing that agenda. It's probably going to be near the end of summer before we are all vaccinated. Then we will probably have to start thinking about doing it all over again. Possibly using a different set of vaccines because of vaccine escape.

 

The vaccines are great

[ThistleWhistle]

Remember looking at the numbers last week and Scotland had 95%+ care home residents, 83% of staff and 98% front line workers given the first vaccine.  There was no figures for England I could find so presume we’re doing better at these especially as a government minister was rolled out this morning on ITV and asked about care homes and staff  vaccine. 

 

However, we were miles behind on the over 80’s as England had done 80% whereas we were 50% and at 600k overall we’re a bit behind in the numbers game.  Scotland can argue they went for quality over quantity initially and would hope now it’s fairly easy to play catch-up, supply dependant, now they can run mass centres and noticed our doctor was opening up this week to it so hopefully see a bounce.      

[Lamia]

2 hours ago, Orraloon said:

Have you contacted your GP practice? They are more likely to know better what is happening in your local area than anybody on the TAMB.

They started the over 60s at the start of December. I know a lot of folk between 55 and 60 who have already had it. Some of them paid for it themselves, right enough. You can still get it if you want it. 

GPs don't know and there is a holding statement on NHS Grampian website which says "We await Scottish Government guidance on the expansion of NHS flu vaccinations to this age group."  I know others in other areas which have had a similar response when the actually contacted the Health Board

Edited February 1, 2021 by Lamia

[Lamia]

2 hours ago, ThistleWhistle said:

Remember looking at the numbers last week and Scotland had 95%+ care home residents, 83% of staff and 98% front line workers given the first vaccine.  There was no figures for England I could find so presume we’re doing better at these especially as a government minister was rolled out this morning on ITV and asked about care homes and staff  vaccine. 

 

 

 

However, we were miles behind on the over 80’s as England had done 80% whereas we were 50% and at 600k overall we’re a bit behind in the numbers game.  Scotland can argue they went for quality over quantity initially and would hope now it’s fairly easy to play catch-up, supply dependant, now they can run mass centres and noticed our doctor was opening up this week to it so hopefully see a bounce.      

 

When staff who are not Health and Social Care are being prioritised over over 80s I don't think that is quality? As I said I don't know how widespread this is but it is happening. I blamer Health Boards for not properly policing this.

 

I do think England are focussing on numbers more than anything else and with be very interested to see their actual breakdown. They are just not providing the detail which is suspicious.

[ThistleWhistle]

17 minutes ago, Lamia said:

When staff who are not Health and Social Care are being prioritised over over 80s I don't think that is quality? As I said I don't know how widespread this is but it is happening. I blamer Health Boards for not properly policing this.

 

I do think England are focussing on numbers more than anything else and with be very interested to see their actual breakdown. They are just not providing the detail which is suspicious.

Looks like they missed their original deadline 

https://www.hsj.co.uk/coronavirus/target-date-for-care-home-vaccinations-missed/7029380.article

BBC have said all 'older' care home residents have been 'offered' their first jab whereas on the Scottish story it says:  the programme for first doses for care home residents, front-line health and social care workers and those aged 80 and over would be 'completed' by 5 February. 

Proof will be in the pudding though if they can ramp it up now they're moving into the general public. 

[Orraloon]

Setting of these targets is just sheer stupidity, IMO. It doesn't matter whether it's England, Scotland or any where else. It doesn't do any good. All it does, is put extra pressure on the health professionals whose job it is to organise and administer the vaccinations. These people are already under more pressure than they should be, and putting them under even more pressure by setting unrealistic targets isn't going to help anyone. It's time for these politicians to but out, and let the health care staff get on with their jobs.

[TDYER63]

4 hours ago, Orraloon said:

Have you contacted your GP practice? They are more likely to know better what is happening in your local area than anybody on the TAMB.

They started the over 60s at the start of December. I know a lot of folk between 55 and 60 who have already had it. Some of them paid for it themselves, right enough. You can still get it if you want it. 

I am getting texts from my GP surgery saying not to contact them . I think they were getting inundated with calls. The most recent message( Thursday)   says that they will contact everyone over 75 and those on the shielding list as soon as the vaccine arrives. Must be soon as there is now a vaccination centre at the town hall.,
 

Is that true you can pay for it ti get it quicker? One of my clients said he asked his doctor and was told he couldnt, he is in England right enough but I wouldn’t have thought the rules on this would be different. Or is this a very recent decision ? It was a week or two ago i spoke to him. 

[AlfieMoon]

19 minutes ago, TDYER63 said:

I am getting texts from my GP surgery saying not to contact them . I think they were getting inundated with calls. The most recent message( Thursday)   says that they will contact everyone over 75 and those on the shielding list as soon as the vaccine arrives. Must be soon as there is now a vaccination centre at the town hall.,
 

Is that true you can pay for it ti get it quicker? One of my clients said he asked his doctor and was told he couldnt, he is in England right enough but I wouldn’t have thought the rules on this would be different. Or is this a very recent decision ? It was a week or two ago i spoke to him. 

The only reference point I have is my mum (turns 72 on Saturday) who lives in Paisley. 
 

Her experience is exactly as the ScotGov said it should be.
 

2 weeks ago they said that letters would be coming out in a to her age group before the end of the month. Last Monday she got her letter.
 

Her appointment is for this Friday @ the Lagoon leisure centre (mass vaccination centre) in Paisley. This is well in line with target to do her age group by mid-Feb. 
 

I appreciate people and health boards wi have different experiences but I’d hope what I’ve seen provides some level of reassurance. 
 

 

[slasher]

On 30/01/2021 at 9:41 PM, kumnio said:

Jesus 😳. Obviously sounds horrific, hope he can recover ok. 

My cousin regained consciousness yesterday and is now off the ventilator. Fingers crossed he's on the road to recovery 🤞

[Orraloon]

47 minutes ago, TDYER63 said:

I am getting texts from my GP surgery saying not to contact them . I think they were getting inundated with calls. The most recent message( Thursday)   says that they will contact everyone over 75 and those on the shielding list as soon as the vaccine arrives. Must be soon as there is now a vaccination centre at the town hall.,
 

Is that true you can pay for it ti get it quicker? One of my clients said he asked his doctor and was told he couldnt, he is in England right enough but I wouldn’t have thought the rules on this would be different. Or is this a very recent decision ? It was a week or two ago i spoke to him. 

I didn't realise you were that old?

We are talking about the flu vaccine here, not the COVID one. 

You can get them at a lot of pharmacies. As long as they have a qualified vaccinator. It's about £9. It's not something I would do, but some folk do, just for the convenience.

You can't buy the COVID vaccine. Not legally anyway. 

 

 

 

Edited February 1, 2021 by Orraloon