Vaccine- who will have it?

[Nom de plume]

Just now, John Wright said:

Much better to wait until there’s an agreed international standard.

Well Brexit took 4 years and there were two parties negotiating.

Buckle up sunbeam.

[Non-Believer]

1 minute ago, Nom de plume said:

There was a time many moons ago that I had a brief but enlightening foray into the world of the civil service.

It was my understanding then (though times might have hopefully changed) that each Department were allocated their budgets annually and the respective Chief Execs in conjunction with their minions would decide where those monies were best spent. Toward the end of the year there would be a mad panic to spend any surplus that hadn't been used on literally anything they saw fit as a lack of spend would mean a reduction in their Dept. budget the following year.

All sorts of crackers and crazy decisions were taken in those last three months of the financial year. Oh how I laughed (cringed) at the time as a young man.

I'm sure it's all very different now.  

I suspect not. Look at the Gawne/Sloc resurfacing fiasco and the reasons for it of only 6-odd years ago. I'm certainly not aware of any change in policy (although that's not to say that there hasn't been one  but if there has, it's not showing).

The end of the Financial Year has one of two outcomes for most Govt Depts. A rush to spend what's left of the budget (or even a slight overspend) to secure the budget for the following year.

Or a visit to Tynwald, cap-in-hand for a massive bail-out as per DHSC in repeated recent years.

Any budget cuts or freezes that are imposed by Treasury simply result in cutting of services to the public rather than any real in-house economies.

[Happier diner]

12 hours ago, madmanxpilot said:

Indeed. 89% efficacy against the 'original' Covid and 'Kent' variant, 60% against the South African. Like Pfizer they are already formulating a booster to address the SA variant.

https://ir.novavax.com/news-releases/news-release-details/novavax-covid-19-vaccine-demonstrates-893-efficacy-uk-phase-3

A booster isnt going to help the poor buggers that have already had it (ie the most vulnerable). I can see this whole thing having to start again!

[madmanxpilot]

8 minutes ago, snowman said:

The problem with Patient Access is your shared record will be available for 24 hours via a unique link and secured using an access code.

So if you want to share information with an airline or specifically at a border check its not really practical. 

Much easier to have a piece of paper that can either be uploaded to an airline website or waved at the appropriate people during travel.

 

That said, you can generate a PDF of the immunisation record but it's not signed and doesnt have any reference of who the gp is.  It simply shows your name, DOB and NHS number, and vaccination  dates.  Doesnt look very official

Regarding the 24 hr limit, you can generate one on request and show it to the person you are dealing with when requested. The same system that patient access use to access your data is likely to be used by app developers to populate vaccination passports and the like, so I'm keen to see the data on the system at least.

 

[madmanxpilot]

2 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

A booster isnt going to help the poor buggers that have already had it (ie the most vulnerable). I can see this whole thing having to start again!

Lets hope they can keep the SA and Brazilian variants suppressed until these boosters become available. In any event, from the recent reports I've read, and indeed within that Novavax statement, the current vaccines offer significant protection against these variants to an extent that they do seem to prevent serious illness developing, which is the whole point of the exercise really.

[madmanxpilot]

1 hour ago, Nom de plume said:

The Grandstand & car park behind was (is) the perfect location for the 'temporary' testing / vaccination hub.

Do we know yet how much the Chester Street and Airport refurbishment is costing?

I'll tell you shall I  - a fucking shed load. 

Airport was circa £140K according to my source close to the project.

[Nom de plume]

3 minutes ago, madmanxpilot said:

Airport was circa £140K according to my source close to the project.

Big biccies brother.

[Banker]

4 minutes ago, madmanxpilot said:

Airport was circa £140K according to my source close to the project.

No doubt there will be the government cheer leaders like pie head saying good value!!!

[finlo]

4 minutes ago, Nom de plume said:

Big biccies brother.

You are Timmy McDowell and I claim my fiver.

[Happier diner]

21 minutes ago, madmanxpilot said:

Lets hope they can keep the SA and Brazilian variants suppressed until these boosters become available. In any event, from the recent reports I've read, and indeed within that Novavax statement, the current vaccines offer significant protection against these variants to an extent that they do seem to prevent serious illness developing, which is the whole point of the exercise really.

Fingers crossed you are correct. I just have an uneasy feeling about the way this is going. Not based on science just a hunch. 

I think the positive is that us oldies will get our fine tuned booster each year (maybe mixed with the flu jab eventually) and that will be OK. My worry though is that Governments are putting faith in the vaccination programme getting us quickly out of this pandemic.

In older people the immune response is typically not as strong. Even with a vaccine stimulus. If the vaccine is not quite right, it might help a fit person but is it going to help a frail old person in time, someone who becomes ill quickly.

Hope I am wrong. Being a bit gloomy.

[madmanxpilot]

4 minutes ago, Banker said:

No doubt there will be the government cheer leaders like pie head saying good value!!!

It could easily converted into a pod hotel when it's served it's primary purpose, or even a local produce craft market....lots of potential other than firewood 😎

[Gladys]

1 hour ago, asitis said:

Agreed but the UK aren't doing that they are using tents, churches, mosques anywhere they can get people quickly and easily to ! The sight of a long queue of elderly people in the rain in January outside the airport terminal is worthy of resignations imo ! dress it up how you like they have known the vaccine is on its way since late autumn and we are still pissing about with places to administer it !

Exactly!

[Gladys]

1 hour ago, Roger Mexico said:

Because the purpose of the DoI is to spend money.  Any provision of facilities for the public, or even the rest of government, is purely incidental.  Once you understand this everything else makes sense.

Perhaps they have a budgetary imperative.  Probably not as many projects this past year, so on the mad government budgetary basis of 'if you don't spend it you lose it", this project has been over specified. 

[Andy Onchan]

30 minutes ago, madmanxpilot said:

Airport was circa £140K according to my source close to the project.

Unbelievable.

[Roger Mexico]

4 minutes ago, Gladys said:

Perhaps they have a budgetary imperative.  Probably not as many projects this past year, so on the mad government budgetary basis of 'if you don't spend it you lose it", this project has been over specified. 

It can't be that because 'projects' have their own budget.  In contrast the excuse used for the Sloc resurfacing was that the money was in the normal roadworks budget (it wasn't even true - they overspent it that year anyway without the Sloc).  But this would have, in theory, a separate budget.  In practice it would be 'money no object' because of the time scale.  Which in DoI terms would translate to "Spend!  spend! spend!" which in turn would actually slow things down.