[314/366] vaccine

[cosmolinguist]

Hey, apparently there's?...a vaccine?!

When Andrew told me this, my immediate question was "okay so how long until you and I have it?" His guess is two or three months. They'll still be cold, dark and grim months, but they'll be more manageable if this works out.

Comments

[jo]

Likely longer than that. The UK should get 10 million doses by the end of the year, with a further 30 million doses already ordered. Everyone needs two doses. Priority will go to the following groups:

Interim ranking of priorities is a combination of clinical risk stratification and an age-based approach, which should optimise both targeting and deliverability. A provisional ranking of prioritisation for persons at-risk is set out below:

older adults’ resident in a care home and care home workers
all those 80 years of age and over and health and social care workers
all those 75 years of age and over
all those 70 years of age and over
all those 65 years of age and over
high-risk adults under 65 years of age
moderate-risk adults under 65 years of age
all those 60 years of age and over
all those 55 years of age and over
all those 50 years of age and over
rest of the population (priority to be determined)

(source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/priority-groups-for-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-advice-from-the-jcvi-25-september-2020/jcvi-updated-interim-advice-on-priority-groups-for-covid-19-vaccination)

[azurelunatic]

If I recall correctly, that would put Cosmo in the 2nd group due to being a caregiver?

[cosmolinguist]

And Andrew is going to be either a high-risk or moderate-risk adult under 65, depending on how that's measured.

[cosmolinguist]

Yes, this is exactly the list he texted me soon after this conversation, likely from exactly this source which I'm sure he's looked at. He's been following all the updates and details about a bsccine incredibly closely because he knows how important it is to our mental health.

And it is just a guess, I was being half-silly but I did press him to give me an idea of what to expect ("I know we can't know, but also you have to tell me").

[diffrentcolours]

I'm still working on the idea of things getting back to a semblance of normal around Easter 2021

Don't forget there are other vaccines still in trial, including the Astra Zeneca one at Oxford. The UK has pre-ordered more doses of that one than the Pfizer one. If other vaccines are also successful and can be rolled out in parallel, it should make things easier.

[cosmolinguist]

Yep, Andrew was saying the other week that the Pfizer one was on track to be ready a little bit quicker than the Oxford one, so it sounds like that's all going as expected. I think the Oxford one is just waiting for enough people to get sick though, so technically it's a good thing it's taking a long time. :)

[anankastick]

I'm very curious about how the vaccine rollout will go in the US. I'm hoping that my parents are inoculated early, as my dad is very fragile and my mom takes care of him. (Both are over 70.) Maybe Mr. Lake will get it somewhere near the beginning as he is a healthcare worker? Who knows. Likely nothing but capitalism will decide...

[cosmolinguist]

I saw something yesterday saying Pfizer wouldn't charge any USians for the vaccine, which was a big relief. I'm sure they'll get rich anyway, but I didn't want to have to worry about the poor/uninsured members of my family.

[anankastick]

That's really good news! Phew!

[otter]

I don't know if technically I'm a social care worker, but as I work just for my own family, I'm not going to push for priority. We can just keep staying home til it gets to my turn as a 55+ person, and beyond, as the rest of the household is younger.

[cosmolinguist]

The distribution will be different everywhere, probably by state in the U.S. But yeah, I think a "it'll happen some day, we can stay home until then" attitude is for the best in the meantime!

[po8crg]

My reaction was "I might be able to have a birthday next year".

[zhelana]

Right? I can hold out longer if there's an end in sight. If they tell me "Diabetic adults will get the vaccine around ____" i'm fine. It's a lot better than this open ended "just sit at home until things get better."

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, diffrentcolours and I ware talking about this the other day: a known date, even a long way off, is easier to deal with sometimes than "well maybe quite soon now but nobody knows."

[zhelana]

yeah, definitely. Just tell me what I need to do and I'll do it. But otherwise I'm kind of fed up.

[silveradept]

The possibility of an end is massively cheering, even if it might be a significant amount of time before that end can be achieved. Just knowing there's an end point is great. I hope their further trials continue to say that it's good, and effective, and there aren't downsides that would sink the project.