It seems like the AZD vaccine is causing some real worries, particularly in those under the age of 50. The UK has just reported 25 new cases of people with blood clots, there is one in Australia (a man aged 44), along with the cases in Europe. Canada has now suspended the jab for those under 55 with a mortality rate of 40% for those that developed the blood clots.

Temporary shortage of vaccine. The government did announce, though I'm unsure if the announcement was England only, that people should book their first vaccines for prior to 29 March, as from that date the online booking system would be restricted to second doses only for a few weeks.

119 is the NHS covid query line, including booking appointments, though again that may be difficult to access from overseas.

probably due to the focus on jab 2 this month combined with shorter stock so even though they are also still trying to get everyone from the first eligible priority groups in, i think it is a bit more difficult to get the first appointment for the next few weeks until things loosen up again.

yesterday i got a text from my GP to schedule my first jab and when i went online, it only gave me 3 centers (central london) and two had zero availability. the third was a 20min car ride away and would only let me schedule my first shot that afternoon. so i had to clear my work meetings to get there to be given my first jab. it was weird but i am just 41 so wasnt going to complain about the urgency of it all!

I read recently that in the western world 1 person dies every 37 seconds of a thrombosis/clot. Has something changed in the meantime from this (18/3/21)?: And if you got it from the BBC I am not interested in anything they say ! :)

UK regulator confirms that people should continue to receive the COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca

My guess is the numbers will show there will be many many less deaths by continuing the AZ roll-out in the UK, as opposed to extending the timelines until young people can get another vaccine. Other countries might make different calculations based on their vaccine rollout stage and supplies.

And I don't know much about that despite bonnie Scotland being a few fields away from where I'm typing this. But as a very general point, if you are over 50 and turned up (say) in England with a Scottish CHIN rather than a NHS number, no vaccination centre should send you away. That's in the NHS England and Wales guidance for vaccination centres. If you have a connection to somewhere in England you could get an NHS number by registering at a GP and then it's much easier on the Point of Care computers. But if you were planning on an extended stay away from Scotland you probably need to get your vaccine where you are now, or think in terms of starting again at the point you arrive back in the UK. We are vaccinating non Brtis who have recently arrived in the UK, so if your age group is being vaccinated you should be OK. If you arrived in Scotland today, and were over 50, then your GP would ensure you get your jab within a week or two. There are now active plans for booster vaccinations for those 70 plus and CEV from September, and I bet that will be extended to at least 50 plus.

Yes this is again the clear divide in public health establishment. Roughly half the senior figures have a personal clinical background, they tend to operate on the precautionary principle per patient. The other half are epidemiologists or data scientists who look at mass numbers and see a balance of risk in population terms rather than per patient. So broadly speaking is it better to protect people from a virus killing thousands every day in Europe, or maybe 1 or 2 people per day with clotting issues which may or may not be related to the vaccine? The other view is why give a younger person this vaccine without clarity on their personal risk when there are other vaccines (theoretically) available? And the core problem is the word theoretically.

It's just a no-brainer. This is like the entire nonsense and frenzy over MMR all those years back.

I’m afraid this is a very poor comparison. The MMR crisis was a confected risk, based around falsified data, by a clinician who has since been struck off for fraud. The only real similarity is the generally poor quality media reporting.

There do seem to be some legitimate concerns about the AZ vaccine and the incidence of particularly rare forms of thrombosis considerably above normal population (it isn’t just, as one person implied upthread, any old blood clot). That does warrant careful investigation, to rule out or at least quantify any possible causation.

However: in the current situation the important issue is the balance of harms.

Now my personal view is that corporate-wage-slave is spot on: the harms of not getting the vaccine to people as soon as possible vastly outweigh the risk of harm of these rare issues (I don’t want to use the term “side effects” because we don’t know if they are caused by the vaccine yet - hence the need for more research and analysis).

I’m not sure it’s a simple divide (medical doctors operating on the precautionary principle on the one hand, data scientists/public health doctors on the other). Most medical doctors I know come down on the latter side: inform people about potential risks, of course, but ensure as many people get the jab as possible as soon as possible.

But I think this difference in attitudes does exist across countries, and partly explains the differing approach between the UK and France/Germany. Gross generalisations but the former, especially, has very high vaccine hesitancy even before the current crisis; the latter’s attitude was summed up by Merkel’s comment that people should be informed of the risks (in relation to AZ being restricted to over 60s).

HMG have just added more countries to the red list:

Bangladesh (will be added to the list 4am Friday 9 April)
Kenya (will be added to the list 4am Friday 9 April)
Pakistan (will be added to the list 4am Friday 9 April)
Philippines (will be added to the list 4am Friday 9 April)

7 days notice this time which is a bit better.

Thanks. Was it clear whether this was just red list or also the shorter flight ban list too?

I did not see any mention of flight bans. I received an email as I subscribe the FCDO Bangladesh travel info. Kenya will be a problem for some as along with Ethiopia it takes out two of the biggest carriers for Africa.

On the safety of AZ, I thought this article from The Atlantic was very fair minded and sensible: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...o-away/618451/

TL;DR - ‘be transparent about the risks, contextualise with the risks of not being vaccinated, and give people clear guidance what to do if they are unwell afterwards. In this case that is, go to a doctor if you develop shortness of breath, chest pain, leg swelling, severe headaches, blurred vision or persistent abdominal pain after vaccination.’

And for those looking for an appointment - a further route to try. My wife (45) had her AZ yesterday at our local surgery in Lambeth after getting a text from them last week. While she was there, she asked on my (44) behalf and they booked me in for next week. Didn’t have to lift a finger. :D

Without wishing to start an argument on this we will have to agree to disagree. At that precise moment in time and before everything came to light, and yes, poor media reporting, where we were living it was a decision we had to make soon, Bliar/HMG was effing useless, and people were scared about getting the kids jabbed worldwide. It's one thing having a functioning adult capable of logic and reason making a decision for themselves, but when you are making a significant decision for something that is months/year or so old, it reaches different proportions. Not for me though, it was an absolute no-brainer, but I could see the stress around me from so many people. I could see no evidence that worried me and the consequences were awful of not getting it. The only hard evidence was getting either/all MMR and none of them seemed palatable. We have to make risk/reward decisions in all aspects of our life and this was just another one.

But sort of getting back on topic, if I hadn't already had the AZ jab, I would have no hesitation in the slightest in taking it again (well I will for my 2nd one), or letting any of my family have it.

Also, did we all know that it is now renamed to Vaxzevria? I know CWS will know :)

Vaxzevria (previously COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca)

it’s hotel confinement.

As usual, the UK gov press release has not a lot of detail besides the usual party lines.