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We are likely only months away from a vaccine for covid in the UK. Most on this forum would be towards the top of the list to receive it but how many would take it.
Vaccines go through lots of approvals before being passed for use but there is pressure to get a vaccine out there as soon as is practically possible.
Do you think the speed at which the current vaccine candidates have been approved means they are less safe than previous vaccine?
I would take the vaccine if offered but not without reservations I may add.
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We take drugs that are prescribed to us without question, in the main, even though there may be a list of potential side effects, albeit they will invariably have had a longer testing period, because without them we would be vulnerable, to whatever ails us.
Part of a poem I wrote some time back explains why my wife and I will take the vaccine –
popping pills is now my life
without them there would be such strife
so the moral here, though not quite Hamlet
if you want to live ‘ poor Yorick’ take the Tablet
Regards
VW Tiguan SEL in Silver White.
The only time I have ever had the flu was after having a flu jab. The doctors say coincidence, I’m not at all convinced, so I have never had one since. As Covid is related to the flu virus, I am not at all sure I would take the risk, I would have to see some significant results first.
Yup. Would definitely want to take a vaccine IF it has been properly tested. And there’s the problem. Testing of said vaccine would be down to government and NHS and I simply do not trust them one little bit.
Drug company making it? Telling me the truth? Hmmm. Hope we DO get a workable vaccine but I wouldn’t bet on it. Covid, so we’re told, is in the same family of conditions as the Mk 1 Common Cold. No vaccine for that…
Yes I will would be totally stupid not to I’ve lost friends to this pandemic people don’t realise how bad this is until people they know start dying because of it.
After thinking this through & still deciding that I would take a vaccine if it becomes available, I’ve noticed that there are thoughts on what would it take to get people to take a vaccine.
Would it take money, as in get paid to take the vaccine if said vaccine were likely to be necessary to achieve a herd immunity to cut down the circulation in the larger population?
Would it take a different incentive, perhaps your not having to wear a mask once a couple of weeks after taking the vaccine has passed (it takes time for the body to mount a response to the vaccine)?
Would it help if it were made mandatory to have the vaccine? These are difficult times & it could be argued that it is in the public interest for everyone to be vaccinated unless there’s a very good reason for not doing so.
There are moral issue here, both for & against vaccination being voluntary or mandatory, take for instance certain groups who wouldn’t accept vaccination voluntarily, possibly young students who are little affected by the disease although they are much affected by the lockdowns so may side with vaccination as a way to escape. Then there are the religious groups who don’t do vaccinations, often for differing reasons, yet we know the disease spreads through the act of meeting in these religious communities (singing in church having caused one of the early superspreader events in France).
Anyway, these issues are being voiced – https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-11-people-covid-jab-widespread-coverage.html
Its an interesting point Julie and one that we will be faced with within the next few weeks as the government begin to roll a vaccine out across the UK.
I don’t think it should be mandatory, I think that could be unproductive in the short term as we know from experience that people love a band wagon to jump on to.
I do believe people who take the vaccine should be rewarded but not financially.
I don’t know how practical this would be, and it could cause problems, but if there were an e-certificate that could be logged on your phone that shows you have had the vaccine allowing restaurant, cinemas etc to reopen with only those who have been vaccinated allowed in.
Freedom would be the incentive I think that’s payment enough.
but if there were an e-certificate that could be logged on your phone that shows you have had the vaccine allowing restaurant, cinemas etc to reopen with only those who have been vaccinated allowed in. Freedom would be the incentive I think that’s payment enough.
I suppose that in countries with ID cards this would be simple enough, but it isn’t going to work in the UK which is fine.
Mass testing & vaccination combined into a single process would hopefully be enough to break the cycle without anything being made mandatory here in the UK, other countries will vary.
Oddly enough I think an Inverse Law of Vulnerability should apply: Vaccinate all the healthy 20 – 40 year- old people first and see how things are after 4 weeks. If no significant problems, roll it out to healthy children and wait another 4 weeks. If still no significant problems, vaccinate the elderly and the vulnerable.
Reasoning is two-fold – The first two groups are 1) those best able to recover from any adverse affects; 2) those most likely transmitters of the infection because they have to have to interact at school or in the workplace (and during social interaction, because most of them seem incapable of a) NOT going down the pub/shopping/going on Protest Marches against xxxxx (insert your cause here), or b) Social Distancing properly. Or, indeed, at all. Ever.
Would I have the the vaccine, no hesitation yes, however, the wife is not so sure. I would happily go first being the Guinee pig and have the vaccine if I was ok, then maybe the wife.
In 2005 I suffered a brain injury which has left me with mental and physical disabilities.
Unfortunately I do get confused and get things wrong, so I apologise in advance.I’m with you oscarmax.
Yes having seen the effects of Covid I would be willing to take the vaccine. If we want to get back to any kind of “normality” we need to be able to short circuit the progress of the virus. One of the most effective weapons we have in the management of highly infectious diseases is the use of vaccines. I hope one becomes available sooner rather than later so we can all benefit.
Def there are a few vaccines available, my cousin got the Chinese version a couple of days ago. The Oxford vaccine will be available within weeks and then there is the Russian vaccine.
Would I take it?
It seems Mrs Wigwam had Covid in the spring as she is now suffering post Covid symptoms according to the hospital. She was in a day long meeting in London with 6 other people who all came down with it, so it’s entirely probably she had it in a mild form at the time.
I have been with her and also with my daughter who had it quite badly in the spring, but I haven’t caught it. So it sees unlikely I’m going to.
So, no, I would not accept the offer of a vaccine. I am reasonably fit and healthy even though I am of the “at risk” age. Ask me again in 2 or 3 years time by which time it’s effectiveness and risks hopefully will have been established.
I would take it. Compared to past experience I expect it would be relatively safe. I speak as someone who watches the tainted blood inquiry intently. I am also in a unique position having had gene therapy which went dramatically awry. So it’s quite funny to contemplate a vaccine and worries about it. Seems to me the benefits far outweigh the risks. It’s well researched, the numbers involved are huge and the technology, if not the precise disease, seems fairly well established, though of course some of the vaccines use very new technologies. When you are inoculating otherwise well people I think standards of care are higher than if you are dealing with the sick or disabled people who may well feel the potential, if risky benefits far outweigh the risks.
Unfortunately for a lot of us, the Pfizer and BioNTech RNA vaccine currently being lauded by the media can’t be given to people with a compromised immune system.
Assuming this is the vaccine that Britain rolls out en masse we will just have to either a) wait for an effective non-RNA Vaccine to come along (many other possible vaccines in the pipe-line), or b) hope good old ‘Herd Immunity’ will cut the odds to the point were we’re deemed ‘safe’ from infection.
Curiously, the most elderly people in Care Homes seem to be first in line for this vaccine, despite the fact that your immune system gets progressively more compromised the older you get. I’d love to read the ‘reasoning’ behind that idea.
sif if you would like to tell us about your gene therapy experience I would be happy to hear about it. Obviously if you can’t or don’t want to I understand its just that these things really interest me
Totally agree, Georgie. Why give it first to those most at risk and less likely to sue if it goes wrong. Couldn’t be to check for undiscovered side-effects before giving it to “normal” people, could it? No, surely not.
I reckon Georgie’s Inverse Law of Vulnerability Plan, detailed above, with old crumblies coming last is a better idea.
The problem with the ‘Herd Immunity’ plan is that, at the moment, one in three eligible people are apparently saying they won’t take the vaccine.
Should people not be tested to see if they are already immune? Would save a lot of time and effort vaccinating the wrong people.
I find that surprising. Seems to me that taking the vaccine carries far less risk than the chance of catching the damn thing. Am told by Those Who Know About These Things that the same issue affected the smallpox vaccine.
Should people not be tested to see if they are already immune? Would save a lot of time and effort vaccinating the wrong people.
Although that may appear to be sensible, there’s another spanner to throw into this idea, that of cost.
If a vaccine won’t cause a problem in those already immune (severe reactions appearing rapidly is what would be looked for) then it may simply be that the vaccine is cheaper than the tests & so no, vaccinate everyone anyway.
If a vaccine will cause problems in those already immune then yes, it’s imperative to test before vaccination.
Part of the testing stages that these vaccinations have been going through will hopefully have fully addressed the above & I’d hope any findings are published BEFORE people are asked to take the vaccines.
Unfortunately in the UK we have the NHS who assume they know best & will blindly cause disasters in the process, which is why I’m closely reading the reports on these vaccines as they are released. Remember I’m pro vaccination, but, also a scientist, I will be checking their data sets very carefully.
AZD1222 (the Oxford vaccine) data sets so far also look rather promising by the way, not just the Pfizer vaccine.
Off the top of my head . . .
Because we don’t know how long post-Covid ‘natural immunity’ lasts (or how effective it is) or how long the Vaccine will last, if people have the vaccine the date of vaccination can be officially recorded and Doctors will then have a definite Immunity ‘starting date’.
The only time I have ever had the flu was after having a flu jab. The doctors say coincidence, I’m not at all convinced, so I have never had one since. As Covid is related to the flu virus, I am not at all sure I would take the risk, I would have to see some significant results first.
The flu vaccine only protects against certain strains of the flu – also the vaccine does not contain the flu to can’t give you the flu – so like the doctor said it was a coincidence.
Covid is not related to the flu virus.
I think it more likely the majority of those in the UK will receive the Oxford vaccine as the government will want to give as much support to it as possible.
The government have pre-ordered 30,000,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine so not enough to give to all of us.
Julie I would be interested in your thought’s on vaccine suitability as your investigation goes on.
