Vaccine

Sunday Musings In October

~ beetleypete ~ 52 Comments

Well, Beetley seems to have missed out on the predicted ‘mini-heatwave’. Saturday was dull and cloudy, and though not cold, it failed to climb above 19C here. (66F) Today is predicted to be a cloudy 22C, so while I am not yet putting away my shorts, I am still wearing a zip-up fleece over my T-shirt.

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Not a great week for me. Feeling the hangover from kidney stones, I then got side-effects from my Covid-19 booster vaccine. Nothing terrible, but an annoying headache that was hard to shift, and a sore arm that seems to have crept up into my left shoulder. As a result, I have done very little, other than take Ollie for his walks.

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As I mentioned in another post, Ollie’s snoring has reached record noise levels. Within seconds of falling asleep, he now puts down enough decibels to necessitate an increase in TV volume, and we can also hear his rumblings at night through the wall of the kitchen where he sleeps. Although he has always snored, even as a tiny pup, this new-found sound is almost ear-plug worthy, and I suspect it might be attributable to his advancing years.

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I am still lacking enthusiasm for October, to be honest, and I need to try to shake off my current mood.

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Have a good Sunday, wherever you are, and whatever you are doing.

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An Early Booster

~ beetleypete ~ 62 Comments

I already had my Covid-19 booster booked for the 30th of November. But today I received a call from the vaccination clinic to say that many of those booked for this afternoon had not shown up. If I could get there, they would cancel my November appointment, and vaccinate me today.

Naturally, I said yes, and after a 15-minute wait in a small queue, I received my annual booster.

This time the drug used was Moderna. This means I have now had all three vaccination drugs approved by the UK government.

My first two were both Astra-Zeneca.
The next booster was Pfizer.
Now this one is Moderna.

I was warned that my arm might be painful tomorrow, and I had to stay for 15 minutes before I was allowed to drive home.

But that is me done. Fully vaccinated for now, with a small card to prove it too.

Astra-Zeneca Vaccine And Blood Clots

~ beetleypete ~ 131 Comments

There has been a great deal of uproar on the news media over the deaths of some people after receiving the first dose of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine. They developed a rare form of low-platelet blood clot in the brain, and that was almost certainly associated with them receiving the vaccine. Any death is tragic, and someone dying after taking a vaccine to try to prevent contracting Covid-19 is in itself a terrible irony. My sympathies go to any family affected by this.

However, compared to the millions of people who have been vaccinated, the death rate is remarkably low from those clots. It is around a one in a million chance that it might happen. To put that into perspective, you have more chance of drowning in your own bath, or being killed by an aircraft crashing on your house.

So no baths, and no sitting in your house?

Some EU countries have now banned the use of that brand of vaccine, and the UK government is not going to give it to younger people, who seem to be at higher risk of the clots.

But before you decide not to have it, please think about the statistics.

More chance of being killed crossing the road outside your house.
More chance of being killed by being struck by lightning.
Much more chance of being killed whilst driving your car anywhere.
More chance of being killed in a train crash.
More chance of being killed by an allergic reaction to an insect bite or sting.

I could go on, but you get the point.

There has been no evidence that the second dose has caused any blood clots. So if you have already had the first one, then please go ahead and have the second one when it is offered.

Thinking Aloud On a Sunday

~ beetleypete ~ 72 Comments

Vaccine Snobbery.

I woke up today thinking about Covid-19 vaccinations. I had mine last week, and many other bloggers were reporting on those received by themselves or their loved ones.

But that wasn’t the reason I was thinking about it. It was because I encountered a dog walker recently who asked if I had already had my vaccine. When I said yes, he wanted to know what type of vaccine I had received. I told him it was the Astra-Zeneca, and he seemed pleased. He told me he had been given the Pfizer, which was the ‘better’ vaccine.

The NHS here gives you the vaccine that is available on the day. You don’t get to choose. You don’t get to debate which one you would prefer, or to argue about the statistics relating to how effective it is. I am more than grateful to have received any vaccine, free of charge, and delivered early, painlessly, and efficiently. Whether or not one drug company claims better results is of no consequence to me.

But in a country where many are somewhat obsessed with having a bigger house, or a better car, it seems that Covid-19 is supplying such people with a new version of one-upmanship.

Vaccine Snobbery.

Get over yourselves, please.