My First COVID vaccination

that the French put their old people out of their cars at the side of the motorway to die.

One of mom’s complaints at being in hospital was that they never bothered to open the windows and nobody ever refilled the water jug unless she nagged them. This was three different wards in two different hospitals.

At work, the staff break room is unbearably hot in the summer as the windows don’t open, the doors are not allowed to be opened (we have RFID badges for entry), and the ventilation doubles as a heating system so it is simply turned off when it’s not winter.

So it’s simple things like fresh air and hydration that they don’t seem to have mastered over here.

it was their pet dogs and cats they did this with

Idiots on both sides of the wet bit leave animals and very young children in baking hot cars.

Not sure what temperature would be necessary to kill a cat – when we used the wood burner in the living room in that very cold winter of 2003 (or was it 2004?), a certain furry critter sat on top right beside a potato wrapped in foil.
Uh… asbestos fur?

But our track, trace, isolate policies need attention!

https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/05/japans_covid19_contact_tracing_app/

I don’t track or trace, and I won’t.

It’s great that Keir Starmer can self-isolate for… what is it, the third time?

People at my end of the employment ladder don’t get paid when we’re not in work. And I know there have been at least four people at work who have been told to stay home following a positive diagnosis (who were at work the day before). So if I had an app and had to follow it, that would be four times… what is it, five days? Twenty days is near enough a full month of work that I’d have missed. Including at least half a month of pay as the regime doesn’t pay anything for the first three days. Assuming that they’d pay for the other two (I’m not technically ‘ill’).

Sorry, can’t afford that.

France did cover from day 1 right at the beginning. But they stopped doing this when the first lockdown finished.

It’s great that Keir Starmer can self-isolate for… what is it, the third time?

That’s not from Covid, it’s exposure to Tories :)

And I know there have been at least four people at work who have been told to stay home following a positive diagnosis (who were at work the day before).

One of my normal office colleagues tested positive Jan 1st, the guys who were in the office in the days immediately before just worked from home for 14 days with a slight rota change¹. The advantage of work that can be done from virtually anywhere.

Depends upon the competence of the person giving the injection.

Mostly, I’m sure. I didn’t even feel the needle going in (or out, or in between) for either my flu jab or the Covid one. But with the Covid one, two hours later my arm felt like someone had punched it, which I’m pretty sure was my immune reaction to the vaccine, not anything to do with any incompetence on the part of the lady who jabbed me. Pulse was fast (by my standards) for a few hours – up in the 80s even when resting, compared with my normal 45-50.

I felt the injection with both flu and covid, both much less uncomfortable than dental ones. In both cases I had a feeling of a small bruise in the injection area, which appeared after a few hours and lasted a couple of days.

I was advised that no protection would be present for at least a month, and one should continue social distancing etcetera.

I reckon we’ll be stepping into people’s driveways to avoid oncoming pedestrians whilst walking the dog for a lot longer than that! Years probably!

We need a highway code campaign to remind people it’s only safe to step into the road when facing oncoming traffic – lots of people seem to have forgotten that, or perhaps they never knew?

Bit like all these bl**dy bikes with no bells that come up behind you silently on shared pathways. I like the bell that goes dring-dring, because by the time I’ve processed the one that just goes “ping”, they’re upon me! Oh, was that the dumb-waiter, or the “pass”?

How are the Jerry’s getting on with the vaccine rollout?

remind people it’s only safe to step into the road when facing oncoming traffic

Be patient. Natural selection will work to sort this out.

I was advised that no protection would be present for at least a month,

The protection from Pfizer or AstraZenica is supposed to be pretty good from three weeks – as in, you do have 10-15% of an unvaccinated person’s risk of catching Covid, but it’s extremely unlikely to be very serious even if you do catch it. But keep masking up and social distancing anyway, to minimize even that small risk, and more particularly to keep down the risk of passing it on should you catch it and not even know.

Well I have just had my first vaccination (Pfizer). I was very impressed with the operation: three vaccinators and about fifteen helpers marshalling the traffic to a free car park, directing the trickle of people and they were doing sixty people per hour. I am in the ‘over 65’ cohort so I was suprised to get a text message on Monday from my GP surgery asking me to book a vaccination on line at a location that is just over a mile from my home in Bristol.

Well done NHS.

Err – three – two to hold you down :-)

Yes, what I meant was that three people were being vaccinated at the same time at three separate tables each with one vaccinator… (as was obvious).

Rather than take one of the hospital slots (and a Pfizer) I had the jab at the Stoneleigh show ground setup and an Astra Zenica¹.
Stewarded parking, stewards guiding you in the door of Hall 1 (provided you have an appointment);
questions at the door about symptoms (none – tested it back in April mate);
sanitise and move onto first floor sticker of the yellow queue;
wait 30 seconds or so;
move forward to reception give name, DoB and appointment number²;
move to another sticker wait nearly a minute;
called in and directed to bay 6;³
set of questions and stabbed;
handed leaflet and directed to the 15-minute wait area (advised for drivers);
depart in your own time.

Slick. Much the same as at the hospital from descriptions. I’m sure they could do more, if the people requiring a jab were there

If they were running at full capacity they’d be ramped up to, I think, 10 times the number of bays.

¹ Obviously my chip will be giving me messages in Oxford English

Obviously my chip will be giving me messages in Oxford English

It’s those Oxford commas which’ll be the giveaway!

It’s those Oxford commas which’ll be the giveaway!

I don’t do German, so the wife would have had to translate that.
Oxbridge stuff I can mentally translate to proper Yorkshire :)

Mind you, where can you go?
As of Monday 8th you need a permit to enter an airport, ferry port etc and not end up with a criminal record…

I could still fly my own plane though.

I could still fly my own plane though.

I suspect you haven’t read the legal text: “Entering a point of departure” – so if you enter the point of departure to see someone off, you’re in the frame…
Bear in mind it’s come from Pritty, so the chance of proper thought is low.

Somehow, every time I think about this the lyric from The Eagles comes to mind: “You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave”

I suspect you haven’t read the legal text: “Entering a point of departure”

Makes a change that she’s keeping people in rather than trying to keep/kick them out.

But…

and not end up with a criminal record…

I don’t think she’ll be happy until everybody has one. The hell is her problem, anyway? I can’t believe the Tories managed to appoint a Home Secretary that manages to make May look almost human in comparison. And policies that would have kept her own ancestors out. F’kin hypocrite.

“You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave”

Remind me, what was this guff about getting back to normal?

Not this year… maybe not next. As long as governments allow people to mix and taking forever on vaccination programmes, the more we’re likely to see mutated versions which mean GOTO 10.

At least that’s something the UK is doing right – a halfway competent vaccination programme. Shame it’ll be cocked up by parts of Europe making a right balls up of it, and certain countries simply not bothering because “fake news” or some other lame excuse.

Remember, the difference between now and the last big pandemic is how much people travel around. If you look at FlightRadar24, you’ll notice the oddity that local air travel has been greatly curtailed, yet international flights (especially long haul) are still going. I suppose it doesn’t help that France considers its DOM to be a part of France (and, by consequence, a part of Europe) so it maintains transatlantic flights as “domestic travel”. Yeah…….

It’s going to be a battle between getting enough people given a working vaccine before a new variant that is resistant emerges. Either way, I don’t think the end is in sight yet.

Pollen season has started here now, so… that’s fun…

At least that’s something the UK is doing right – a halfway competent vaccination programme.

I think the UK gov fooled itself.
Public promise of money for the NHS to do something and throw a quietly stated condition of “provided you do this before x date”¹

Either way, I don’t think the end is in sight yet.

Sight… Ironic event time: Friday, day off², and I get messaged about a problem with a bit of firewall protected kit (peculiar setup I put together a while back to meet a need)
The IOL700 is used on “the Cataract Pathway” and the clinical staff in the loop were asking me personally to pull out the stops, to help the patients.

Sorted now, and I’ve had a side conversation about me being one of said patients…

¹ Meeting the time constraints has pushed people to breaking point, but one of the things that got the Nightingale instances up and running was fast inventive thinking on the IT front so pushing the limits was worth it, I think. Of course doing that eaves run down and prone to…

I think the UK gov fooled itself.

It’s been doing that for half a decade.
In a way it’s a shame that Covid happened now. It masks the chaos from the other chaos causer.

Public promise of money for the NHS to do something

Something, perhaps, so long as the “heroes” don’t expect anything resembling a worthy pay rise.

so pushing the limits was worth it, I think.

Pushing limits is worth it once in a while to make stuff happen in ways that wouldn’t if it was “managed” or passed through god knows how many committee meetings.

The problem comes when that is expected to be how one works every day. And for what recompense?

Pollen season has started here now, so… that’s fun…

Hazel right outside the kitchen window. Had a few nuts off it, before the squirrels, last year. Don’t do allergies myself, but the wife complains.

Got a flower open on the camellia, bit early.

The problem comes when that is expected to be how one works every day. And for what recompense?

I enjoy doing what I do, the payment has always been a bonus in many ways. It is nice to feel you aren’t being taken advantage of though.
Mind you, with the lying, thieving, and generally corrupt¹ oiks in place at the moment you know you’re being shafted.

Good news – I think I’ve discovered a side effect of the Astra-Zenica vaccine in my system.
Following the initial knockdown of the Sars-Cov-2 infection I got in April my finger joints remained swollen and the right hand only half functional for closing.
The Astra-Zenica triggered a re-swelling of joints for a day, but my fingers are better now than they have been for months.

¹ Proof abounds. It’s almost a daily occurrence of discovering which contract was handed to a mate (with no competence) without proper process.

Pollen season has started here now, so… that’s fun…

I think I’m sensitive to birch pollen at this time of year. It’s a transient thing which just reminds me of what’s coming down the road in a month or two.

I’ve been a sufferer since my early teens (everybody say, “Ahh!”) but wasn’t diagnosed until I joined the RAF. Summer ’64 was a revelation. The little blue pill (“Only take one last thing at night”, abjured the MO) ensured solid sleep, great difficulty in waking and the following day spent in a zombie-like trance. And all head-based orifices continued with their exudations unabated; or so it seemed.

In the summer of ‘70, I walked the length of Prince of Wales Road in Norwich. Lime trees!!! I didn’t realise how problematic they would be. I was sneezing blood for several hours after.

Now it’s all controlled by a nasal spray but the eyes can still itch badly. I used to be able to buy Otravine Antistin drops which were excellent at controlling the irritation but it now seems unavailable – at least it was the year before last. I must try on-line again.

All my sympathies to my fellow sufferers.

Well they are even getting around to youngsters such as myself now, I’ve got a jab booking for Wednesday lunchtime. So I’ll be able to see what you old codgers are moaning about.

At least sneezing season doesn’t start for me until bang on my birthday in mid May.