Long Covid

[headshot]

It would be nice if we could actually get a vaccine booster nowadays...

[jimbob]

It would be nice if we could actually get a vaccine booster nowadays...

You probably think that if HMG had already got the vaccine, it's better to give it to those who want it, and for whom it had originally been bought, rather than deciding to bin them as being not cost effective.

[headshot]

It would be nice if we could actually get a vaccine booster nowadays...

You probably think that if HMG had already got the vaccine, it's better to give it to those who want it, and for whom it had originally been bought, rather than deciding to bin them as being not cost effective.

RIGHT??

I’d happily pay the same as the flu vaccine to get it too.

[lpm]

I got one.

GP sent a text message inviting me. The nurse filled in the form that asked for the reason why I was entitled. I wasn't, so she shrugged and clicked the carer box.

It's another miserable failure by the government. They have the boosters. I paid £15 for the flu jab, would happily pay for the Covid booster each year.

[El Pollo Diablo]

It's another miserable failure by the government. They have the boosters. I paid £15 for the flu jab, would happily pay for the Covid booster each year.

Same. It's absolutely ridiculous. Maybe it's just an attempt to disclaim any mention of Covid at all, given how much they f.cked it up, plus the inquiry, but they could do it on the quiet.

[Allo V Psycho]

I got a booster late last year, and I got the feeling the pharmacist was actively looking for excuses to give my partner a booster too!

[Woodchopper]

Same where I am in Scandinavia though. After the third vaccination boosters are only available for high risk groups and their carers. I'm not sure how many places in Europe actually offer boosters to everyone.

[Woodchopper]

I got a booster late last year, and I got the feeling the pharmacist was actively looking for excuses to give my partner a booster too!

Assuming the vaccine has a shelf life they may have been trying to give it to someone before it needed to be binned.

[jaap]

Yesterday the Dutch news reported on some new Dutch research into long Covid. They showed that there are differences in the muscle tissue of long Covid sufferers compared to a control group, proving that the tiredness is not occurring in the brain only. They took muscle tissue samples before and after exercise and saw that the muscle fibre cells were not recovering from the energy depletion. Here is the press release, and here is the paper in Nature.

[shpalman]

Same where I am in Scandinavia though. After the third vaccination boosters are only available for high risk groups and their carers. I'm not sure how many places in Europe actually offer boosters to everyone.

Italy lowkey reopened covid vaccination to everyone at the end of last year. I got myself one. My GP also gave me a flu vaccination in November on a flimsy excuse while I was there for the certificate I need to participate in non competitive sport.

Meanwhile the hospitals have any had lots of people in for covid and flu.

[headshot]

I was there for the certificate I need to participate in non competitive sport.

Why do you need a certificate for that?

[shpalman]

I was there for the certificate I need to participate in non competitive sport.

Why do you need a certificate for that?

That's how it works in Italy if you want to join an amateur sport society, and most dance schools are those because it's taxed in a very relaxed way compared to a normal commercial activity (I don't get taxed on what I earn from teaching dance as long as it's not my main job and below an annual threshold, but I did need to do some b.llsh.t course with some other school to get the diploma which proves I'm a teacher). There's insurance as long as people are in decent health when they show up, which the certificate demonstrates.

A gym would ask for the same thing. I know in the UK there's just a disclaimer like "talk to your GP before starting any exercise routine" or something.

I also get a health checkup every year to make sure I'm still fit to work.

Also I ought to have up to date CPR training and I know that just expired.

[jimbob]

I got a booster late last year, and I got the feeling the pharmacist was actively looking for excuses to give my partner a booster too!

Assuming the vaccine has a shelf life they may have been trying to give it to someone before it needed to be binned.

Which the government managed to fudge to say was not cost effective


https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... 6-may-2023

A bespoke, non-standard method of cost effectiveness assessment was developed to reflect the ongoing uncertainty around COVID-19. This cost effectiveness assessment was one of the factors considered by JCVI in the formulation of its advice for autumn 2023. Cost effectiveness was only considered by age group and clinical risk group.

and from the pdf linked from the link above: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... ssment.pdf

Summary
1. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has provided its
advice for a COVID-19 booster dose in autumn 2023. JCVI's advice states the
following groups should be offered a COVID-19 vaccine in autumn 2023:
• residents in a care home for older adults
• all adults aged 65 years and over
• persons aged 6 months to 64 years in a clinical risk group, as defined in
tables 3 and 4 of the COVID-19 chapter of the UK Health Security Agency
(UKHSA) Green Book
• frontline health and social care workers
• persons aged 12 to 64 years who are household contacts of people with
immunosuppression, as defined in the UKHSA Green Book
• persons aged 16 to 64 years who are carers and staff working in care homes
for older adults, as defined in the UKHSA Green Book

A. Sunk purchase costs
50. We treat the purchase cost of the COVID-19 vaccines as sunk for the autumn
2023 programme. This means the purchase cost per dose of the vaccine is
assumed to be £0 in economic terms. Therefore, the only cost of the autumn 2023
programme is that of deploying the vaccine. This cost is incurred by the NHS.
51. This is due to a unique situation for COVID-19 vaccines currently. Some COVID19 vaccines have been procured prior to JCVI advice being available on who
should be offered a vaccine, with existing contracts with manufacturers. These
contracts, managed by UKHSA, mean there are existing COVID-19 doses in
freezers and more doses coming this autumn that are pre-purchased. These doses
could be deployed in the autumn 2023 campaign without any additional
procurement cost. There are sufficient doses for the autumn 2023 campaign and
no need to procure further doses in any of the options considered. To decide on

treating the purchase cost as a sunk cost in economic terms, we have explored the
alternative uses of the existing doses if they are not used in an autumn 2023
campaign.
52. One use is to save the doses for a potential spring 2024 campaign. This is not a
feasible alternative because current doses have an expiry date, with many doses
set to expire before a potential spring 2024 campaign can commence. Another
alternative use is to donate doses internationally. This too is infeasible since
international demand for donations has been very low or nil. The final alternative
use is to save the doses for a potential surge campaign, in the event of a severe
variant of concern. However, there are already doses earmarked for a surge
campaign and no need for additional doses.
53. Therefore, these doses have no feasible alternative use, and it is appropriate to
treat the purchase cost as a sunk cost for the autumn 2023 programme. Without
being used in the autumn 2023 booster programme, these doses would expire. In
making this change to the methodology, we have assumed there is no impact on
future COVID-19 vaccine spend. This is an important departure from the standard
JCVI cost-effectiveness approach where the purchase cost of the vaccine is
included. Even though vaccine purchase costs are set to £0, there is still a cost to
deploy the vaccines, hence the cost-effectiveness is framed as the stated
willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the deployment per vaccine dose. This can be
interpreted as the cost-effective price for deploymen

Assumibng zero costs of infection for anyone who was not hospitalised.

Long nitter thread on this

https://nitter.net/_CatintheHat/status/ ... 95447642#m

[lpm]

Our government is perhaps not as competent as we believe.

[Woodchopper]

Same where I am in Scandinavia though. After the third vaccination boosters are only available for high risk groups and their carers. I'm not sure how many places in Europe actually offer boosters to everyone.

Summary of several European countries here. Looks like the emphasis is on high risk groups getting booster vaccinations, but not the general population.
https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/10/0 ... cases-rise