Who should reveive the Covid vaccine?

[Richard]

The more it spreads the more it mutates and therefore, as a priority, it should be given to people at high risk of spreading it, assuming they have it?
Plus the vaccine is currently only for adults over 50.
Children/students are, therefore, not part of the current vaccination programme.
There is an urgent need to implement more aggressive and efficient testing of people (over 50) with suspected infections if surveillance is to be a useful tool for fighting the pandemic.
i.e. we don't even know who has got it.
We have wasted billions on 'track and trace' that hasn't worked well at all.
Protecting the NHS staff is only one measure.
Since mass-vaccination is not possible there has to be a target demographic.

[Richard]

The Covid virus is much more prevalent in hospitals, remember MRSA ?
If you go into hospital in old age, and in a state of frail health, and catch Covid there, then you are at great risk, it will probably be the final straw.
Doctors, out of compassion, may even invite elderly partners to attend for the final moments, without 'putting two and two' together.
Then even more may succumb to the virus.

[Keef]

Hi Richard, this is my first post though I’ve been visiting the site occasionally over the last few years.
I think you have hit on a point that hasn’t really been discussed in the media – whether it is better to prioritise the vaccine for those most likely to spread covid rather than those most at risk from the consequences of catching it. Thinking about my own situation at the moment, I am adhering to the lockdown restrictions and only venturing out of the house to visit the supermarket and local newsagent, so I am typically only meeting a few people a week – the shop workers. The shop workers, on the other hand, are meeting several hundred people per day. If, God forbid, I should have covid, I might pass it on to a couple of other people, but if the shop worker has covid then they could pass it on to hundreds. Now, I am getting on a bit and on the borderline of being considered ‘vulnerable’, whereas the shop workers – the vast majority of whom will be younger and fitter than me – would not be considered vulnerable. But given that an infected shop worker, no matter how young or fit they are, could pass it on to so many more people, isn’t it more important that they get the vaccine before me? I think that the vaccine should be prioritised according to the potential to infect others – that means NHS staff before patients, care home staff before care home residents, children (if the schools remain open), and the shop staff, bus drivers and all those other people who meet lots of people every day, rather than people like me.
It sounds heartless not to prioritise the elderly and infirm and those most at risk of the consequences of catching covid, and I have the utmost sympathy for those affected by this ghastly situation. But I think a hard-headed appraisal would find that it is better to vaccinate those most likely to spread the disease rather than those most likely to suffer from it.

[number9]

For me, I would have liked the priorities for giving the vaccine to have been different.
My list would be:
1) Paramedics/Ambulance Drivers
2) Intensive Care Hospital Staff
3) GPs + Hospital Drs & Dentists
4) Nurses / Care Home Staff
5) Hospital porters & housekeepers
6) Key workers in supermarkets / foodshops
Then senior citizens etc

[number9]

"EU health chiefs have demanded pharmaceutical firms give 'early warning' when exporting vaccines to Britain."
"It means Pfizer - which has a jab-making plant in Belgium - will be forced to tell EU officials about jab exports."

[Richard]

I missed the replies to my first post until today.

Should we prioritise those more at risk of spreading it (i.e. younger people working in supermarkets, younger family members, for example, who may not even know they have, or had, it) or those more at risk of catching it and becoming seriously ill, i.e. the elderly and more especially if they are ill already? It partly depends on how many elderly and vulnerable people are visiting supermarkets and coming into contact with younger family members.
Older people may already have weaker immune systems and logically need greater protection, i.e. via vaccination as a priority.
Can we keep the elderly away from supermarkets and family?
Is vaccination mainly to stop vulnerable people from catching the viral disease or to prevent its spread by a younger generation?
Assuming that vaccination means that it can no longer be spread, at least as quickly.
On many levels it is a very difficult equation to solve.
Current guidance will be based on expert medical opinion.
Circular reasoning is endless and hence priority should be given to the most vulnerable until we have more information.
It is easier to vaccinate the target if you know which demographic to target and the logistical possibility of doing so in a given time-frame.

[number9]

WHO CAN WE BELIEVE ?

I have read many times that Germany has an excellent health service
It seems the Germans have a different view on the AstraZeneca vaccines to us.

They seem to believe that it is less effective on over 65 year olds
We on the other hand seem to think it's Ok for all ages

So who can we believe and if we support the German view can over 65s ask for
the Pfizer vaccine instead ?

[Richard]

If I were German I would not be happy.
The Oxford/AZ trials showed the vaccine to be highly effective at preventing serious illness and death from Covid, including in older people.
I think there is a German political decision to try to undermine confidence in the Oxford/AZ vaccine given the mess the EU has made of procurement.
Germany has its own Pfizer vaccine but can't roll it out quickly enough owing to bureaucratic delays. Also the Berlin government is under increasing fire from experts and politicians for not buying enough doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to quickly roll out its immunization program.

[seahermit]

The priority for vaccinations should of course be the most vulnerable people - which mainly translates into the elderly since they are the ones most likely to react badly to becoming infected. The younger ones are less likely to die.

Frontline nurses etc. are also priorities because they may be carriers. But of course these difficult decisions are invidious, people of all ages are not immune and have been dying, so the essential is to get the vaccines to everyone as soon as possible - that will settle it.

Got a letter the other day with the promise of a vaccination. Hope it won't done be in the North of England! And that the bug doesn't get me first, before they prick me ..

[Richard]

I know someone who had the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine who was told by his doctor that it can take three weeks before achieving the full designated immunity level.
It is typically a shot in the upper arm.