O/T. The Government's handling of Covid

[Trickytreesreds]

Eleven ‘no shows’ in Ashbourne today, and no it wasn’t snowing...inexcusable.

Yes your right it isn't. Not like a football club will use that excuse either ;-)

[Ram59]

Eleven ‘no shows’ in Ashbourne today, and no it wasn’t snowing...inexcusable.

Agreed, but don't you think that the government or the local NHS should have a 'standby' queue of people who are prepared to wait, possibly in vain, for a chance of a missed vaccination. It's not just the actual dose, it's also a criminal waste of the medics' time.

I would be prepared to wait for the 'chance' of a shot and I think many others would feel the same.

[Andy_Faber]

Agreed, but don't you think that the government or the local NHS should have a 'standby' queue of people who are prepared to wait, possibly in vain, for a chance of a missed vaccination. It's not just the actual dose, it's also a criminal waste of the medics' time.

I would be prepared to wait for the 'chance' of a shot and I think many others would feel the same.

I saw a couple of reports (OK on fb but it looked like reliable folk, friends of my mate who's a nurse) that people have been 'found' to take up the spare doses, this was 'east' of Derby, a proper reserve list would prob be better but you can't really have oldies turning up on the off chance

[swaledale]

Aye the EU approved it for use 2 days before we did. Them Wednesday, us today. I imagine in a 4 or 5 horse race, we only backed the horses finishing 1st and 2nd, but failed to get on the 3rd place finisher

No we didn't join the the Eu procurement but went our own way, so are third or fourth in the queue. If we are going to bang on about getting the vaccine first (or a vaccine) then we need to acknowledge that some decisions were wrong.

I surmise that in the medium term, whether we went first or second will be immaterial but no doubt we will see.

[swaledale]

Totally agree on the no shows, they should go to the back of the queue. My daughter-in-law, who works in a pharmacy next door to a clinic, has just received the Pfizer vaccine, to save it being thrown away because of no shows.

For an intelligent man, you make some pretty daft statements. So you're claiming because we're not in the EU vaccination programme, we're worse off than the EU who still haven't got the moderna vaccine whilst we're actually injecting the Oxford one? Jeez.

No I'm pointing out that if we had been in the EU procurement programme (not the vaccination programme) we would ahve access to the moderna vaccine - tested to be safe on 18 years old and upwards, 2 months earlier and would therefore be able to vaccinate more people sooner!

Thats not quite the same thing.

[Ram59]

No I'm pointing out that if we had been in the EU procurement programme (not the vaccination programme) we would ahve access to the moderna vaccine - tested to be safe on 18 years old and upwards, 2 months earlier and would therefore be able to vaccinate more people sooner!

Thats not quite the same thing.

So, if we were in the EU procurement programme, the EU would have been happy for us to receive and administer the Pfizer and Oxford vaccines, weeks before the rest of the EU?

In any case, according to the German health minister we would have received less than their 2 million doses by the end of March, we've already received more than that in the first week of January.

I suppose they would be happy to let us have our cake and eat it or should I say our vaccine and inject it, dream on.

[swaledale]

So, if we were in the EU procurement programme, the EU would have been happy for us to receive and administer the Pfizer and Oxford vaccines, weeks before the rest of the EU?

In any case, according to the German health minister we would have received less than their 2 million doses by the end of March, we've already received more than that in the first week of January.

I suppose they would be happy to let us have our cake and eat it or should I say our vaccine and inject it, dream on.

You've kind of got things a little wrong here, IF we had been in the EU procurement programme, we would have got the Moderna vaccine within the next couple of weeks in addition to what we have procured on our own.

The approval process was a separate from the procurement process,and the EU were willing to allow the UK to be a part of it, we chose not to do so. It did not preclude the UK also following other procurement routes, so it would not have been a case of the EU letting us, it was within our own control. So we would have had extra doses of the third vaccine earlier, by choosing not to join the EU process the government have less vaccine available in January than it could have had.

There was no reason not to, other than an illogical decision not to be involved in the EU. So the Brexit dogma has in this case been a negative effect on the people of this country.

[Andy_Faber]

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/...paign=sharebar

[ramAnag]

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/...paign=sharebar

Pity they’re restricted to ‘left overs’...but an excellent ‘solution’, imo.

[Ram59]

You've kind of got things a little wrong here, IF we had been in the EU procurement programme, we would have got the Moderna vaccine within the next couple of weeks in addition to what we have procured on our own.

The approval process was a separate from the procurement process,and the EU were willing to allow the UK to be a part of it, we chose not to do so. It did not preclude the UK also following other procurement routes, so it would not have been a case of the EU letting us, it was within our own control. So we would have had extra doses of the third vaccine earlier, by choosing not to join the EU process the government have less vaccine available in January than it could have had.

There was no reason not to, other than an illogical decision not to be involved in the EU. So the Brexit dogma has in this case been a negative effect on the people of this country.

From what I've read from the British ambassador to the EU, we wouldn't have been able to deal direct with the manufacturers of the vaccines as well as being part of the EU procurement. The EU procurement team also claimed that they will decide on which EU countries get which amounts of the vaccines, dependent on need and not on ability to pay. This is a decision over which the UK would have had no control and this is one of the reasons for us opting to go it alone. I can't believe that the EU would have been sympathetic to the UK cause after Brexit.

We'll agree to differ, but I believe that the UK's plan is working best ATM, maybe that'll change over coming weeks.