Vaccine- who will have it?

[TheTeapot]

Last week Ashford said they were about to get extra supply. Today he said they didn't get it. Did it ever exist?

[war baby]

Reporting my own vaccine experiences, if it helps others, I am in my late 70's and had my first jab early in February at the airport.  It was packed and not well organised, but eventually the visit was over.  As I am now disabled it was difficult to get to and from any transport points and I was left outside in the freezing cold.

I had my second jab this weekend, again at the airport hub, and it was completely different.  Wheelchairs were waiting to be used near the end of the carpark and I was signed in, jabbed and out all in 15 minutes.  Most cubicles seemed empty and unused, but I am now fully jabbed with AZ.

I hope everyone has a good experience.  My only disappointment was at having to go to the airport when I live very close to Nobles.  I much prefer heading to the airport ready for a good holiday.  However, we live in hope!  Stay safe.

[Roger Mexico]

Just now, TheTeapot said:

Last week Ashford said they were about to get extra supply. Today he said they didn't get it. Did it ever exist?

Who can say?  The one thing that's sure is they won't be honest with us about it.   

They're currently showing 873 vaccinated today (which isn't even the highest daily amount they've managed, though those may not be final) and 10,182 in stock, but that's at 7 March.  But from memory they were running around 11,000 total last week so they may not have got anything. 

[manxman34]

3 minutes ago, Roxanne said:

I got my letter and rang 111 today at 2pm.

I would like to state, before I tell what happened, that I had convinced myself  before I rang that everything was going to be plain sailing. I was even smiling.

Pressed the '2' option, and it went very quickly from music to a series of beeps as if I'd been cut off. I hung on for ten mins and then began again.

The Second time it did the same, got the beeps and as I was about to put the phone down I was told I was 11th in the queue.

Then followed a weird listening experience of a few seconds of music and a few seconds of beeps and a few seconds of silence. The phone was answered by a human after ten mins only to find my call had been diverted to 111 and the nice man said he would transfer me back again to vaccines.

I hung on through the same music, beep, silence combo and this was interrupted by a message saying i could register online. While I was waiting on the phone i pulled up the website (not very intuitive) filled in my details, pressed send only to be met with the whirling beach ball of death for fifteen minutes till I reloaded and started all over again.  This time it worked straight off and I got an immediate confirmation email to say my interest was now registered.

The whole thing felt as if it had been designed and implemented by someone on work placement. Nothing worked as it should and anyone less bloody minded than I might just have given up.

It wasn't easy.

 

I did it online in about 5 minutes

[Uhtred]

3 minutes ago, Roxanne said:

I know I'm only venting here and that nothing will change but why wait from December until now to start ramping up - why wait until the Kent variant arrived here and why send hundreds of vulnerable people out in the middle of lockdown with so many as yet unexplained community cases. I mean why?

You know why, don’t you?

[horatiotheturd]

5 minutes ago, manxman34 said:

I did it online in about 5 minutes

Have you got an appointment yet?

[Roger Mexico]

3 minutes ago, Roxanne said:

I know I'm only venting here and that nothing will change but why wait from December until now to start ramping up - why wait until the Kent variant arrived here and why send hundreds of vulnerable people out in the middle of lockdown with so many as yet unexplained community cases. I mean why?

Especially when it now looks as if they didn't get any of the extra vaccine they claimed was coming, they didn't even their normal amount.  So they're using up most of the stock they do have by encouraging vulnerable people to come out during (what we hope will be) the most infectious week of the outbreak.

[manxman34]

1 minute ago, horatiotheturd said:

Have you got an appointment yet?

No - email confirming registration is all so far

[Newbie]

1 hour ago, Roger Mexico said:

Who can say?  The one thing that's sure is they won't be honest with us about it.   

They're currently showing 873 vaccinated today (which isn't even the highest daily amount they've managed, though those may not be final) and 10,182 in stock, but that's at 7 March.  But from memory they were running around 11,000 total last week so they may not have got anything. 

Good news is that the figure has updated and is now 1047 for today.

It does say the stock figure is updated twice a week (though why that should be I don't know.)

Edited March 8, 2021 by Newbie

[horatiotheturd]

23 minutes ago, manxman34 said:

No - email confirming registration is all so far

Exactly.  Its not a booking system (because that's too complicated apparently) it's the most basic of web forms.

I actually thought it was a decent system this morning when the Mrs got an appointment after going online. Turns out it was them phoning her back after she finally got through on the phone on Saturday while I was cutting the grass.

Edited March 8, 2021 by horatiotheturd

[Roger Mexico]

55 minutes ago, Newbie said:

Good news is that the figure has updated and is now 1047 for today.

It does say the stock figure is updated twice a week (though why that should be I don't know.)

At a guess they get a delivery of each vaccine once a week and only update the numbers when they arrive.   As the numbers don't seem to change between, it looks as if the 10,182 they have in stock includes the 1047 they did today.  So if they continue at the present proclaimed rate (1000 per day for 5 days a week) they will be out in a fortnight.

Hopefully deliveries will pick up again.  A piece just published on BBC NI suggests a similar problem there, but some hopes that will change this week.  Some deliveries they are getting are pretty near expiry - is that the reason for the swift change of policy here?  Of course, given the amount they have been sitting on, some of our own stock may be quite elderly as well.

[Newbie]

5 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

At a guess they get a delivery of each vaccine once a week and only update the numbers when they arrive. 

I think you are probably right, but it would be clearer if the stock in hand figure was reduced as it was used, and was no longer in hand but in arm!

[Two-lane]

1 hour ago, Roxanne said:

I was about to put the phone down I was told I was 11th in the queue.

Well, you see, this is the way it is. They cleverly decided to spread things out by only sending out 500 letters per day. But the next day, 500 letters landed on 500 doormats and 500 people picked up the phone.

No problem, because they had they had installed an automated phone service which told people what place they were in the queue. Unfortunately they used voice recordings of a real person - and by the time he had got to "You are 11th in the queue" he had decided to seek other employment. So anyone over 11th in the queue got the music.

If they had the sense to use a computer-generated voice, people would have received the message "You are 499th in the queue. The expected waiting time is 2 days 26 hours. Please hold for an operator. The number for the Samaritans is..."

[horatiotheturd]

1 hour ago, Newbie said:

I think you are probably right, but it would be clearer if the stock in hand figure was reduced as it was used, and was no longer in hand but in arm!

Again, in my capacity as someone who stick up for them on the rare occasion it is justified, it does clearly say on the in hand figures that it is only updated twice a week.

[Newbie]

10 minutes ago, horatiotheturd said:

Again, in my capacity as someone who stick up for them on the rare occasion it is justified, it does clearly say on the in hand figures that it is only updated twice a week.

Yes it does, which is what I had mentioned in my earlier post. It isn't very helpful though because the vaccines given today are still being included in the stock in hand. People have at various points become quite concerned about the amount of stock held, but it seems that depending on the day of the week, there may be significantly less stock in hand than the figure suggests. In the end of the day it is a simple matter of subtracting the amount administered each day from the amount held in stock, adding on any new stock received and you have the new figure. But it only gets done twice a week.