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Booster Carnage

Started by Rev+, December 03, 2021, 12:37:21 AM

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Rev+

Just as a sort of heads-up if you're considering a walk-in for a booster, particularly if it's not just round the corner from you and there might be travel involved.

So, the day before yesterday, I went over to the local hospital with the other half for her pre-booked appointment.  I'm there in the capacity of being her carer, as she has mobility issues and that.  We were outside the building in a queue for maybe 40 minutes, her on crutches and becoming a bit wobbly, and once inside there was about a quarter of an hour in another queue before reaching the waiting area and being able to sit down.  That in itself is an arsehole as the appointment was booked for a specific 5 minute slot, so we weren't really expecting that.

Once we were in and she was getting jabbed, I decided to chance it and ask if there was any possibility that I could get a booster at the same time as hey, I was there, we live in the same flat, and I'm out more than she is so if anyone's walking disease in it'll be me.  They were very nice about it, but checked the dates and as my second shot was in mid-June, they couldn't do it.  It's two weeks shy of six months, so they couldn't do it.

What's that you say?  The government announced that you can get a booster after three months now?  Yeah, they announced that, but they've yet to issue an official instruction to the NHS that will allow them to act on it.  The volunteers and nurses were absolutely lovely, and did a sort of relay check with their 'superiors' as they thought they could maybe bend the rules a bit if I was a carer, but no dice.  They need a signed directive from the central NHS lair or they'll get sued to fuck.

Back to the original point though: the massive queues.  The hospital is advertising walk-in vaccinations but is turning all walk-ins away, and it's really starting to kick off as people have been queuing a long time before they learn this.  It's particularly shitty as the people on the doors are, inevitably, volunteers just wanting to help out, but today some punches have been thrown and there's been some barrel-chested blokes just ploughing into the building.

Those types are better than the anti-vax wankers of course, but it's all gone a bit Freddy vs. Jason.

mothman

Noted! I'm booked in on Saturday; I think I'll get there a bit earlier...

My GP where I got my first two only started sending me texts about the booster this week, the last week of my six months. But I'd booked using the national site as soon as the five months booking rule was announced.

shoulders

If they want an efficient mass vaccination campaign they should reopen the centres. Spacious, orderly, even if sometimes slow paced there was the sense of inexorable progress and order.

olliebean

Quote from: shoulders on December 03, 2021, 08:01:57 AMIf they want an efficient mass vaccination campaign they should reopen the centres. Spacious, orderly, even if sometimes slow paced there was the sense of inexorable progress and order.

I thought I read somewhere that they were going to do this, to speed up the booster rollout in response to Omicron. God forbid this government should get their skates on when it comes to public health, though.

shoulders

I've looked up and Elland Road's centre is still open. Great news from a personal perspective but many won't be as lucky and end up in disorganised covid queues down a clinic or ad hoc thing.

Pranet

It does seem like they fucked up the boosters compared to the initial roll out. Never heard anything from my GP or anyone else and when I decided to book an appointment myself had problems getting one and have had to wait a long time... remains to be seen how the actual appointment will go.

Endicott

I got a national invite by text last week, but held off for a text from my GP. The national invite only suggests centres where I have to travel and I didn't fancy that. GP text arrived Monday, booked into local sports centre on Wedsnesday, walked in 5 min early and directed straight to cubicle, jabbed as soon as I'd got my coat off.

Pranet

Ok so it looks like it is personal- the NHS want to kill me specifically.

Alberon

I was planning on waiting until I got the GP text rather than the national invite text, but got badgered by the family into getting one at a walk-in centre in town.

I went at the weekend and it was rammed. Didn't have an appointment (my fault) but they'd temporarily closed walk-ins due to the demand. Told me to come back half an hour later. I did so and was told to come back in another half-hour but they let me in when I said I'd been told that half an hour before.

A fair bit of queuing inside the centre, but I got my booster fairly quickly and then just had to sit there for fifteen minutes to check I wasn't going to die suddenly.

I expect this will all be a lot easier when I get my next booster next year. Hopefully I can pick it up with my flu shot at the same time.

Uncle TechTip

Can't you just book online when the time comes? What's the advantage of waiting for a GP. It's an NHS programme and like the GPs always love to point out, they are private. They should be dealing with everyday care. Unless you have underlying conditions, I'm stumped.

Alberon

With the national text you get there's only a few places you can go. With my first and second jab I booked through my GP and could go to a village hall five minutes south of me near the GP and was in and out in ten minutes.

With the national text the only place I could go was in a shopping centre in the middle of town. Much more hassle and cost (£4.50 to park) and took much longer.

Uncle TechTip

Fair dues yes, i was able to go to Boots in town. Now I understand. I didn't get a single com from GP so i guess they handed it all to the national programme here.

aunt mildred

I'm waiting for my practice letter too, both previous jabs at a sports centre I was in and out in five minutes, I'm hoping they're still doing it there. The booster my older bro got from a pharmacy has fucked him up for the last week though, he was like me before, two AZ and no symptoms. I asked which vax they gave him and they didn't tell him ffs (I would have asked).

olliebean

Quote from: aunt mildred on December 04, 2021, 12:10:36 AMI asked which vax they gave him and they didn't tell him ffs (I would have asked).

Didn't they give him a vaccination card with the name of the vaccine written on it?

aunt mildred

Quote from: olliebean on December 04, 2021, 09:47:01 AMDidn't they give him a vaccination card with the name of the vaccine written on it?

Oh wow yeah you've caught me lying, i'd better dash round there and make sure all the paperwork is in order.

The point is they didn't give a fuck. They didn't give a fuck about vaccination cards and they didn't give a fuck about telling him what he was getting. Why would I lie about this? It was just a matter of fact observation. I'm still getting my booster because I don't want to end up on a vent with five percent chance of living.

Janie Jones

I don't think anyone is calling you a liar. The point is, it's important for people to know what vaccine and what batch number they were given, so the recipients of a faulty batch, were such an unlikely event to happen, could be contacted. So the clinics are supposed to give all jabbed people this info, either on a card or (as happened in my booster session) scribbled on the top of a patient information leaflet. If your brother wasn't given this info, that's remiss of the clinic staff.

mothman

No chaos (with or without Ed Milliband).
Quote from: mothman on December 04, 2021, 12:05:18 PMModerna! Quite a smooth operation all in all. Big sign just inside the door (helpfully) saying NO WALK INS but they were letting a few in - lady in front of me getting her booster had brought her teenage son for his second. And they didn't have a separate queue for 1st/2nds so needed a steward to help then bypass the queue as there were very few of them compared to boostees.

I didn't realise the University of the West of England site had initially been converted to a Nightingale - they were using the bays for vaccinations not patients.

Pinball

I went to an out of town for 2 vaccines, Covid booster and flu, one in each goddamn arm. One arm is now sore, but I'm not saying which one.

Very well organised event, with no fighting or shouting, and an interesting psychological experiment in who is willing to leave before their 15 minutes are up, as a surrogate marker of rebellious anti-establishment mindset. I left at 10 minutes, but mostly because a clipboard woman at the door was staring at me, so it felt kind of wrong to disobey her too early. I'm sensible but not a sheep, know what I mean? Two ladies nearby stayed 5 minutes extra as they were on their phones, bless.

mothman

I didn't notice anyone leaving early. I guess we're all hopelessly subservient down my way! But I just figured, what the fuck, you know? It's fifteen minutes for Christ's sake. Why offend the hard-working staff? What exactly is anyone proving by leaving early? I'm sure a few vocal antivaxxers who've quietly and shamefacedly crept in to be jabbed on the quiet might choose to leave early just to try to prove to themselves they're still fighting the system. Not that I'm saying that's your motivation, P!

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Booster Carnage? These superhero stories are getting out of hand.

Alberon

Actually, thinking about it, they said I could leave after ten minutes. Or was it that I should leave after ten minutes?

I think they wanted the chair and that mattered more than my well-being.

mothman

It may vary by location. All the ones my family have had at UWE (so far, two adult boosters, eldest's two and youngest's guest) required a fifteen-minute wait, but my first and second at the GP were out the door immediately.

Ferris

My parents went to a walk-in and asked nicely last month. Jabbed up and sent on their way, so there you go.

aunt mildred

Quote from: Janie Jones on December 04, 2021, 11:55:19 AMI don't think anyone is calling you a liar. The point is, it's important for people to know what vaccine and what batch number they were given, so the recipients of a faulty batch, were such an unlikely event to happen, could be contacted. So the clinics are supposed to give all jabbed people this info, either on a card or (as happened in my booster session) scribbled on the top of a patient information leaflet. If your brother wasn't given this info, that's remiss of the clinic staff.

Yeah I was probably being a bit sensitive there so apologies @olliebean. The thing is my brother wouldn't lie to me, we've been through too much shit together recently with both our parents dying in the last two years.

I've spoken to him since and he got nada, he even took in his AZ vax card and the guy just glanced at it, jabbed him and that was it, no vaccine name or batch number given.

I'm not trying to put anybody off having the booster, just stating it made him bad for about a week with a bad fever and fucked arm and sickness and diarrhoea (I think the last two were because he wasn't eating because he felt like shit). He said he's about back to normal now so that's good.

I'm still getting mine when I get a date, I figure a week of feeling rough is worth it in the long run, hopefully I'll be ok like most who have had it.

MojoJojo

Quote from: mothman on December 04, 2021, 11:41:55 PMIt may vary by location. All the ones my family have had at UWE (so far, two adult boosters, eldest's two and youngest's guest) required a fifteen-minute wait, but my first and second at the GP were out the door immediately.

Just had moderna and the way they said I had to wait implied it was because it was modern. Looking at the symptoms there's a small chance it can cause the heart to swell up so maybe to check for that.

olliebean

I think it's to make sure there isn't an allergic reaction.

mothman

Oh yeah there's a reason for it, it's just that exactly how long people are made to wait varies. Anyone had to wait for, say, AZ after 1st, 2nd or booster?

Endicott

AZ 1st, AZ 2nd, both times told to wait 10 min, or might have been 15, I don't remember.

Last week had booster which was Moderna, nurse told me to wait 5 min, then I'm directed to a seat and the person says it's 10 mins. So basically, I don't think  you can draw any conclusions as the time they set is haphazard.

olliebean

After one of my two AZs, they told me not to drive for 15 minutes, but I didn't have to wait to walk home. (If I'd driven there, I'd have had to wait in my car for 15 minutes, not in the vaccination place.)

mothman

I think my first AZ my wife drove me there; second AZ, I drove myself. Neither time was any waiting period mentioned or enforced.