This year, the autumn roll out of Covid jabs on the NHS is a lot more restrictive. Not everyone is eligible. Far from it. The elderly can get it, of course. By elderly, we are talking about the over 65s. Front line care workers can get the jab. And people who are vulnerable due to other health conditions they may have can also get a shot of the good stuff. But most folk of reasonable health who are below retirement age aren’t eligible.
I’m inclined to think that this is close to being a reasonable policy. But I do wonder if that the age limit is maybe a little high. Perhaps the over 50s should have the option of getting an autumn booster, given that this is the age that morbidity from covid begins to take off. And perhaps the jab should be available at cost through pharmacies to anyone else who’d like to have it. Surely that would help to further limit cases of serious illness? Morbidity data will provide clarity at a future date, I guess.
I do sense that there is a degree of vaccine fatigue within society. Certainly within younger age groups. Old folk can be seen flocking to Boots and other high street pharmacies to get their vial of life preserving mRNA. Young people, not so much. This isn’t an antivax or vaccine hesitancy issue. Just fatigue. I know several people who have faith in the ability of a vaccine to do its job, but they’re giving this one a miss. They don’t like needles. Or simply don’t feel at significant risk.
Me? Well, I potentially qualified for the autumn booster. I have an autoimmune condition. But it is a condition that seems to lie in a grey area. Depending on what I read, and how I cared to interpret that information, I both do and do not qualify. On the vaccine booking section of the NHS app, it asks you if you qualify: Yes, No or I Think So. I ticked I Think So, and it granted me an appointment at my local Boots for the next day. I know that I am registered as immunocompromised by my GP. I gave a fair answer.
At Boots, when my turn came, I was asked if I qualify for the booster. I said that I think so: I have an autoimmune condition. There were no further questions. I walked out a couple of minutes later with Pfizers finest anti-covid juice in my bloodstream and a sore arm. My take from this experience, is that anyone can get the autumn booster if they really want it. It works on a honesty system. I probably wouldn’t judge anyone too harshly is they told a bit of a porky pie to get theirs.
The Mexile 
This is a second attempt at leaving a comment.
The fourth COVID vaccine is not even being talked about in Mexico. We plan to get ours when we go up to the States at the beginning of November. BTW, did you read that the developers of the Covid vaccine were awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine this year? I wonder if that might convince at least some of the vaccine deniers that it’s time to get a shot, hard as it may be to admit they were wrong…
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You’ll never convince the true howl at the moon conspiracy theorists to go get theirs. A lot of them haven’t moved on from the 5G/nanobot/Bill Gates microchip nonsense. Now they’ve added the current wave of excess deaths around the world to their list of complaints. It’S tHE vaCciNE Wot iS dOInG iT. Of course, we know that the covid vaccines aren’t responsible, because the unvaccinated, across all age groups and all causes, remain more likely to die that the vaccinated, albeit by a more marginal degree these days.
The state of the vaccination program in Mexico surprises me not one jot. The country had one of the worst outcomes from the pandemic globally.
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We got our invitations just the other day. This jab, Comirnaty, which sounds like a Russian spetsnaz group is the new Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination booster. Will it be a double whammy being the flu and covid 2 in 1 shot is the burning question but we can get it in a few days.
So will we? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.. no just joking aside all booked and willing. We both feel that rolling our sleeves up is the least we can do to ensure better health. Our eldest son and his girlfriend came down with covid two weeks ago, their whole newsroom gradually succumbed taking them out one by one but they’ve all recovered fortunately.
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I’ve had covid once, possibly twice. A few months apart early to mid 2022. But I’ve generally proven hard to catch by the dreaded bug. Most of my train drivers class went down with it, but not I. It will get me again eventually. I just aim for ‘infrequent’ and ‘mild’…
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Well in the meantime I’ll raise a glass to you and your continued good health and that of the delectable Mrs P and wish you both a merry Canadian Thanksgiving! (Belatedly)
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There are no restrictions here on getting the latest COVID vaccine. I went to the pharmacy and got my COVID shot… no bad reaction at all other than the slightest soreness in my arm. I also got the high potency flu shot (which is just for senior citizens) and an RSV shot.
Alejandro tells me that in Mexico they are giving the old Sputnik shots from Russia, and they MIGHT have some leftover Pfizer shots available… but these are not the new shots that target the latest strains of COVID. They don’t have high potency flu shots either.
I think that once I have moved to Mexico (two weeks from today) I will take an annual fall excursion to the U.S. to get my jabs.
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Are the jabs free? Or you have to pay?
The Russian jabs weren’t terribly effective when they were first introduced. I imagine they’ll be less so now. I’d not bother, if that was all that was available. And if you are going to make annual trips north, well autumn might well be the time to do it!
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This time around the federal government did not pay for the COVID shots, but my insurance covered the COVID, the flu, and the RSV shots. I didn’t pay a penny.
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