This sounds like simple business economics? The GPs have already incurred the staff costs for the day, so the £12.58 per dose they get is almost all towards profit? (Of course, you might have gone to the GP later, but now that later slot can be passed onto someone else or staff overtime bills reduced.).

Well yes, on one level I guess you have a point, but I know the smaller GP networks (PCN) are fairly relaxed if their patients are done by national centres, so I don't think they are money machines. In larger PCNs then they probably have their patients captive to the GP centres and so they will get the £12.58 at some point, so it's mainly a money shuffle. In any event it's not obvious on the ground that this is going on.

the only thing i could think re ExCel is the location and getting there. you would need to be a motivated person to make your way there if you rely on public transport.

i'm not saying its terribly difficult, but if you are older and not terribly motivated the day of your appointment, i can understand the location of ExCel putting many off perhaps?

Could be a London thing due to underutilization, I had a friend in the 30's that went to the museum in Kensington as a vaccination centre and they got a jab.

I can't say for sure as I have not tried it myself.

Maybe I'm being dense (it does happen), but what do the lighter-lilac internal bars represent ?

Possibly percentage of those who have now had the 2nd dose?

Just a guess though

Bri

That is correct, yes, the lighter internal bars in the Scottish graph are the percentage who have had double doses. For those interested, the tableau has loads of interesting vaccination info for Scotland. Rates per council, per gender, etc. Interestingly, the younger you go, the percentages of women who have had the vaccine already vs men are nearly double, whereas in the older categories they are about the same. https://public.tableau.com/profile/p...43010/Overview

I think in Scotland it is nearly all only big vaccination centres doing the vaccines, so I can't really try to get a spare jab at a pharmacy or GP as I don't think they are doing them here.

I certainly wasn't trying to be condescending by using the 'I am a teacher' line to get my spare jab, that was purely since I know the public is quite sympathetic to teachers getting it now since we are mixing with so many people, so I just said it to try to increase my chances rather than them just seeing me as a total chancer in his 30s!

I would guess that that is because in the younger age groups (I.e. the working ages), there are more women than men in jobs which qualify for the jag - health and social care, essentially.

Yeah, I thought maybe the percentage of each age-related cohort receiving two doses - but intuitively that didn't make sense.

Even though the proportion of those vaccinated in each cohort who have gone on to receive the second dose (essentially a percentage of a percentage) is an overly-refined statistic, the numbers make more sense. And it chime with the visual presentation - a bar within a bar.

But it's still a surprise that 6.6% of 55-59 have received two jabs versus only 2.5% of 70-75 year-olds.

70-75 year olds are group 4 I think (in Scotland, I assume the same across U.K.), but they tend not to work.

Frontline health and social care workers are group 2 (care home workers group 1) - working age people will fall into this category therefore.

I can confirm what other Londoners have said, i.e. that the attitude to giving 'early jabs' is somewhat more restrictive, at least in the West. After having been told off by the bouncer at my local vaccination centre and by my GP I decided to chance it another time. On Saturday I went for a cycle to Heathrow as I felt a bit nostalgic, and stopped by Compass Centre. I can't say I wasn't feeling a wee bit emotional: so many meetings there, so many days spent working with the HAL team... anyway, I sheepishly asked around if it was true that, if spare jabs were available, it was possible to have one. The ladies at the entrance weren't sure but the man with the clipboard said "absolutely no", there is a strict order and they follow that one. No jabs spare, no jabs are going to waste, he said. Tail firmly stuck between my legs I reversed and pedaled off. I think that's me done, I'll patiently wait for my turn whenever that is.

On one of the days when we needed about 100 more people to come forward to get vaccines, we called up some of the local schools. We didn't expect too many teachers to turn up, because it was a school day, but they did. You could tell since the men turned up wearing ties and long sleeve shirts. I'm guessing there was an unofficial wink from on high, teachers are not priority groups, in fact they are less likely to get Covid than almost any other profession, but they do have a good bush telegraph system. We have been backfilling from taxi drivers for a while, who definitely are a risk group (and easy to contact).

I hope you won't have too long to wait, or you'll have to cycle up to Newcastle (and you probably would, too). My logic for this is that one can really see the necessity to bump up the 50 years plus percentage, so towards the end of the week we will know if we have significantly increased the 65% (50-54 year olds) and 80% (55-59 yrs) strike rate. Clearly someone aged 49 years old needs to be done before someone 19 years old.

But soon after that, I wonder if it is going to break down away from rigidity with ages. This logic is that we know it will be trickier to get to these who are in full time work / childcare responsibilities, we know there are pleny of youngsters who think they are invincible, and ultimately we are dealing with a cohort from 18 years old to say 45 years old who generally don't die from Covid. However the 50% prevention of transmission is something very worthwhile for younger people so in a sense that cohort could be done more by demand than by rota. This 50% figure is fairly new, so I don't think it has sunk in yet with decision makers but if this was the only protection that the vaccines offered - and obviously they offer a lot more than that - then we would still be doing a national and urgent rollout. In other words, you can't really justify vaccinating a 25 year old before a 55 year old, but that gap narrows enormously if we are considering a 25 year old versus a 42 year old. And a socialable 25 year old is worth capturing before a 42 year old loner.

In the mean time I wouldn't give up, your heart is in the right place. If someone is West London based, over 50, had their first AZ jab but not the second, and can see the pharmacy list for West London on the NHS booking site, perhaps they could pass a PM to 13901 ? Then he could cycle round and ask to go on the end of day spares list.

Thanks CWS! :) It'll happen when it'll happen, I'm not in a rush. As for cycling over to NCL... not in the current weather, yesterday's wind drove me mental.

By happy coincidence, soon after I got shooed away at Compass my father called. He's 66 and he's been shuttling elderly people to and from the local hospital, in his town, for the jabs (they've been doing 70+, frontline workers and teachers over there). He's too much of a shy guy to ask for a jab if they had one spare and normally waits outside, but he was called in by one of the nurses who offered him a jab too as they'd seen him before. I guess they noticed his hideous poo-coloured Peugeot? Anyhow, he's the lucky recipient of a Moderna jab and has his next appointment in 3 weeks.

I think that is why government is threatening covid passports domestically, in an effort to convince younger people to all have the jab. Let's see what happens, should be interesting.