I had been waiting for the invitation to get my second dose of Astra Zeneca sometime at the very end of May. There’s a twelve week gap between the first and second jab. But a colleague at work suggested last Friday that if I log on to the NHS vaccine website, I could book my second shot anytime from eight weeks after the first shot. So I went and had a look. And it’s true, I could book my second shot, so I did. Yesterday a nurse stuck it in me. Mrs P gets stuck into on Thursday.
So we’re good to go. Freedom beckons. Or so I’d hoped. Alas, the U.K. was a step or three behind in closing the borders and it seems we’ll be a step or four behind in reopening them. The EU and others are happy to receive tourists with two shots plus two weeks for efficacy. But our own government wants tests, tests and tests. Before you take off, after you land and probably an extra one if you use the aircraft’s toilet facilities. Whether one is fully vaccinated or not. Why? Variants. And theatre. Mostly theatre.
I understand that variants can play around with vaccine efficacy, but given that new variants are going to crop up every week for all eternity, we do need to stop the general hysteria and shutting up shop every time a new one is sequenced. Else it’s probably not worth the effort of ever trying to reopen anything ever again.
The Mexile 
Congrats, we got our first jabs a few weeks ago and are looking forward to round two too! We received the Pffffizer jab and have been told we will be offered a choice next time around but I think we’ll stay with the same this time around with a booster in the fall. The AstraZeneca one has had a lot of flack here due to certain side effects, blood clotting and death. One of my sons was due to get his first jab last Friday, hopefully all went to plan the other chap has yet to get his.
We’ve been told that the second jab has side effects although it has the same ingredients as the first. Our first shot gave us Covid arm and two weeks later we both developed nasal drip and a cold that went nowhere. Usually if Carm gets a cold I don’t catch it from her ever so this was more than likely a Covid response.
Good luck with reopening, I’m sure this virus will continue in some way or another for a few years and finally fizzle out in time.
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The AZ jab has had an awful lot of bad press due to blood clots. Yet, from what I’ve read, you’re more at risk from clots from a long haul flight. It’s worth noting that long haul flights offer no known protection from the novel coronavirus…!
Almost everything in the U.K. has reopened now. We’re slowly getting back in the swing of things.
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Congratulations! Did you have any reactions to the second jab? It seems that the younger people (and I consider you young) have a rougher time than we senior citizens. My friend in Mexico City is hoping to be scheduled for his second shot of Sputnik next week.
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I had a slightly sore arm, same as with the first jab. Maybe a bit sorer this time. But nothing terrible.
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By the way, your comments section is acting strangely again. This is William from “Travels of a Retired Teacher”.
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Now we await our inevitable “boosters.”
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It does seem rather inevitable, doesn’t it. More inevitable than the full reopening of foreign travel, perhaps…
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