Covid injection appraised
I support the consensus view that the rollout vaccination programme has been extremely well organised – the cynic might say the government’s sole success to date.
My letter of eligibility arrived a week ago, I made the appointment at the local racecourse for early morning last Thursday.
I was asked at the vaccination centre three times whether I had Covid but the whole process was quick and efficient.
I took the trouble to read the pamphlet accompanying the eligibility letter and this said any reaction was unlikely except for a sore arm.
This was confirmed by the nurse who gave the injection.
Afterwards I felt fine.
However yesterday at around 8-30 I suddenly experienced such a fatigue that I fell asleep on my reading chair.
The whole day I would describe my state as “out of sorts”, feeling mild symptoms of flu – headache and lethargy. Indeed in the afternoon I slept for more than 2 hours.
This echoes symptoms that many I know experienced and I feel should have been stated in the pamphlet and by the nurse.
Nonetheless the feeling of reassurance that I’m 66% protected against catching or transmitting Covid is profound.
Boris Johnson has indeed done well in a week when the mutant virus was still causing new cases.
My critique is more the insouciant way the failure of track and trace app was handled. This cost £22b – an enormous cost for failure.
We were also told that the rationale for Lockdown 3 was to protect the NHS but the pressure on them is now far less.
It’s interesting to compare the vaccination programme to abroad. Israel leads the league table but it’s a smaller country and used to mobilisation.
A French friend of mine complained that her aunt, over 80, cannot get vaccinated. A German friend informed me that vaccination in the office is quite common in her country.
She anticipated having her vaccination in a month whilst BMW have administered theirs to their personnel. If this happened here the accusation of “ jumping the queue” would embarrass a Prime Minister over sensitive to such or any criticism.
He makes his big road-map announcement on Monday but most of the detail was in the press all last week.
