Not just digitized, but centralized. They give the order to vaccinate everyone over age 75, say, they know exactly where every single person that age lives.
Contrast that with the situation here. Nobody has any idea where the old people are (unless they’re in facilities).
There seems to be a whole feelgood thing going on here with the vaccinations. When I went for mine, I was struck by the atmosphere at the distribution centre.
Everyone there had a smile and a greeting, and it was not the bored “have a nice day” either - they seemed to actually be happy doing the job. They were all volunteers and most were not being paid.
Some were older, probably retired, but most looked like students, happy to be out in the sunshine doing something useful. All of the news reports I have seen seem to indicate that it’s the same at all the centres.
The number of centres is expanding every week. We now have two in our small town and I see that in Birmingham, they are using a mosque and one of the main football stadiums in an effort to vaccinate more of the ethnic minorities who seem to be somewhat reluctant.
They are now confident that everyone over 50 who wants it will be vaccinated by May.
There are certainly reasons to be optimistic the way the vaccination are going and the intention in the UK is to offer vaccination to everyone for free.
But there is a significant minority of people whose immigration status is questionable or are stuck in the refugee and asylum seeker system.
The UK government has for many years operated a policy known as a ‘hostile environment’ with respect to immigration.
It was a policy intended to send the message to the electorate that the government was serious about controlling immigration and deporting illegal immigrants and bogus refugees and asylum seekers. The consequences of that policy has been that anyone with questionable immigration status tends to make a considerable effort to avoid the attention of the authorities. That includes accessing health care through the NHS.
Quite simply, there are a million and half people who will avoid vaccination because they are frightened about being arrested and deported. It has been UK government policy to collect data from those accessing NHS health care, landlords and employers and using this as basis for raids by immigration officials.
These people are very nervous and their apprehension is justified. They would rather take their chance with Covid rather than be arrested and sent to an immigration removal centre. Given the years of anti-immigrant rhetoric and scandals like the Windrush deportations, it would take a great leap of faith to be convinced that the UK government has changed its mind.
The UK does not do amnesties for undocumented immigrants from time to time like the US and other countries. Though Boris Johnson has suggested and amnesty in the past, he is out on a limb from the anti-immigrant sentiment within the Conservative party. The Covid pandemic and the public health argument may be a good reason to push for this. But this is not amnesty it is just a temporary suspension of hostilities during a health crisis. I think it will take more than that to convince undocumented migrants to get vaccinated.
Johnson & Johnson vaccine deepens concerns over racial and geographic inequities
By Isaac Stanley-Becker
Sorry if this is paywalled. Some of the Covid-related stuff isn’t – not sure if this one is.
Basically, there are practical reasons, perhaps, for directing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to certain populations or communities, because it is a single shot vaccine. But, it is also seen as less effective.*
So, there is concern that people will question whether an inferior vaccine is being directed to marginalized or less politically powerful populations.
I think this is an interesting issue about how vaccines are being distributed. Particularly caused by the fact that, for practical reasons, vaccine clinics are “branded.” They get Pfizer, they set up a Pfizer clinic, they get Moderna, they set up a Moderna clinic. With informed consent requirements, they can’t keep the manufacturer secret.
It’s further complicated, I think, because some of the biggest benefits of the Johnson &Johnson vaccine may play into racial stereotypes.
I think it might be prudent for officials to just start with allocating all brands equally** and gathering data about uptake and no shows for 2nd shots for awhile. Then, see what the data actually tells you, and act on that, but leave options open for people to get the other brands if motivated to do so.
*The article directly compares them – 90% or greater for Pfizer and Moderna, vs 60% or greater for J&J at preventing both severe and moderate disease in their respective trials – but then rightly points out that you can’t actually compare them head to head because they were tested in different places at different points in the pandemic, with different variants circulating, etc. For example, J&J was tested in part in South Africa, with the South Africa variant circulating.
**Highly transient populations should perhaps be given the single dose J&J shot to eliminate having to track people for a second dose. But, if people don’t want that vaccine, then it’s a problem, and you might be better off just getting one dose of any vaccine into them.