Get real and don’t waste this prized drug on us oldies
I agree with the Exhausted Care At Home Support Worker worried where they and their colleagues will be on the Covid vaccine queue (MetroTalk, Wed).
As an 80-year-old, I’m appalled that older people will be vaccinated first. We have had the best years of our lives – accept that we are happy in the final phase.
Surely NHS staff, carers, shop staff and all the furloughed workers should be given it first to get the country back up and running. Older people won’t be around to pay off the financial debt.
Can we have less emotion, please, and lots more common sense?
Paula, Edinburgh
There were some strong views about the anti-vaccine brigade here (MetroTalk, Thu). I don’t think it’s clearcut for or against. I suspect many will be questioning just how safe the vaccine is.
Normally, medications go through many years of testing before making it to market. Have manufacturers really tested this Covid thoroughly enough?
Nobody will want a repeat of the thalidomide tragedy of the 1950s and 60s [when an anti-nausea drug for pregnant mums caused severe defects in thousands of children].
I’m not anti-vaccine but would like to exercise my right to choose if I can’t be convinced of the long-term effects versus benefit.
Helen, Nottingham
Alan calls those who argue against the vaccine ‘Covidiots’ (MetroTalk, Thu). Just because he thinks a vaccine that was developed and tested within six month is 100 per cent safe does not mean others share his optimism.
Calling those who have a different opinion to him ‘Covidiots’ is simply not right and I’m tired of people like him. In my age group mortality is so low that
I, for sure, will not be willing to test this vaccine on myself.
Konrad, Edinburgh
How does anybody have a right to call me an ‘idiot’ because of my own health considerations?
You have a right to choose what you believe is right for you, and I have a right to make my own choices.
I never had a flu jab in my life and I don’t want to have one in the future. It has nothing to do with theories, just my own beliefs. I’m not an idiot because of what I believe!
Maya, Kent
While it’s not possible to make the Covid-19 inoculation compulsory (thereby leaving a pool of potential spreaders of the virus), it could be encouraged in other ways. The issue of an inoculation certificate is one.
This certificate could be compulsory to show at ports, airports, festivals, organised events etc if you wanted to travel or gain entry. No vaccination certificate? You’re not allowed to take a flight or join the audience at a concert.
John, West Midlands
The biggest problem is that most Western governments won’t want to force their people to take a vaccine. I think the best way around this would be for the UN, or individual counties if needs be, to ban all visitors unless they have taken an approved vaccine or are proven to be medically exempt.
This way, no government is forcing its own people to take it against their will and can reasonably argue that it’s the country you want to travel to that is making you.
How many people would be willing to forgo overseas holidays? Not many, I’d guess. Lots of passports are now biometric so surely the data regarding
successful vaccination could be stored safely in some form or other.
I think some people should just grow up and take it. Vaccinations are proven worldwide with doctors everywhere (including those behind the so-called Barrington declaration that argued against lockdown as a measure to combat Covid) praising their effectiveness.
Matt, via email
The flu vaccination programme in London, and presumably nationwide, is suspended for the 50- to 64-year-old group. This is due, I am told, to a shortage of vaccine.
Given that winter comes annually and elevated demand for this programme was eminently predictable, what lessons could we draw from this?
The lesson I draw is that the Department of Health is not fit for purpose and health secretary Matt
Hancock, although amiable, is in fact an incompetent. Does anyone really believe mass Covid vaccination will be effectively delivered?
Anthony, via email
We should ask Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford to have his plan for mass vaccinations ready just in case Hancock and co need it!
Lisa A, London
We’re told the reason for lockdown is to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients but since the 1970s governments have cut hospital beds.
So we’re severely damaging our economy and causing unemployment mainly because of cost-cutting to the NHS, which has been left with little or no spare capacity. Ruining our economy is a high price to pay for failing to provide enough hospital beds.
A Wills, Ruislip