Are 65-70 year olds with Diabetes being ignored

[PeterV]

Yes this covers me, but it does appear that no concessions are being made for anyone over 65 with diabetes. They will receive the vaccine at the same time as anyone of the same age. Fortunately those over 16 get the vaccine significantly earlier that those of the same age and up to 64.

 

[grovesy]

Yes this covers me, but it does appear that no concessions are being made for anyone over 65 with diabetes. They will receive the vaccine at the same time as anyone of the same age. Fortunately those over 16 get the vaccine significantly earlier that those of the same age and up to 64.

No, the risk factors are still greater in higher age group .You will still be in a higher group.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @PeterV

You might find this page with details of the vaccines helpful

Coronavirus vaccines and diabetes

Each time a vaccine programme is planned, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises the government about who should be offered a vaccine. Over the past few years, the rates of serious illness and hospitalisation from coronavirus have significantly reduced, though there...

www.diabetes.org.uk

It seems that those over 65 are in the 5th spot for priority, while anyone with diabetes regardless of age is in the 6th (I think this is because increased age carries significantly more risk)

Priority groups​

The independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisations (JCVI) has released guidance about who should get a vaccine, and when.​

​

Everyone in the UK will be split into nine priority groups to begin with. Group one will get the vaccine first, group two will follow and so on:​

​

1. Elderly care home residents and their carers​
2. Everyone 80 years old and above, and frontline health and social care workers​
3. Everyone 75 years old and above​
4. Everyone 70 years old and above, and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals (not including pregnant women and those under 18​
5. Everyone 65 years old and above​
6. People aged 16 to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious illness or death from coronavirus. This includes people with diabetes.​
7. Everyone 60 years old and above​
8. Everyone 55 years old and above​
9. Everyone 50 years old and above​

The JCVI estimates that total number of people in these groups covers around 99% of those at risk of dying from coronavirus. After these nine priority groups have received the vaccine, there will be a second phase of vaccination for the rest of the population.​

 

[grovesy]

Forgot to say in my previous reply I am also in the over 65 group too!

 

[ColinUK]

I’m quite pleased to be in the 6th wave. Compared to most of my friends who are right at the bottom of the queue I think it’s ok

 

[trophywench]

Well wowee my great age puts me in Group 4. Exactly the same Group as my husband who only has 50% lung capacity on a good day anyway in the absence of Covid. Simply give us a date and time and we'll be there however far we need to go, sleeves rolled up ready and willing!

 

[Eddy Edson]

Welcome to the forum @PeterV

You might find this page with details of the vaccines helpful

Coronavirus vaccines and diabetes

Each time a vaccine programme is planned, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises the government about who should be offered a vaccine. Over the past few years, the rates of serious illness and hospitalisation from coronavirus have significantly reduced, though there...

www.diabetes.org.uk

It seems that those over 65 are in the 5th spot for priority, while anyone with diabetes regardless of age is in the 6th (I think this is because increased age carries significantly more risk)

​

Priority groups​

The independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisations (JCVI) has released guidance about who should get a vaccine, and when.​

​

Everyone in the UK will be split into nine priority groups to begin with. Group one will get the vaccine first, group two will follow and so on:​

​

1. Elderly care home residents and their carers​
2. Everyone 80 years old and above, and frontline health and social care workers​
3. Everyone 75 years old and above​
4. Everyone 70 years old and above, and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals (not including pregnant women and those under 18​
5. Everyone 65 years old and above​
6. People aged 16 to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious illness or death from coronavirus. This includes people with diabetes.​
7. Everyone 60 years old and above​
8. Everyone 55 years old and above​
9. Everyone 50 years old and above​

The JCVI estimates that total number of people in these groups covers around 99% of those at risk of dying from coronavirus. After these nine priority groups have received the vaccine, there will be a second phase of vaccination for the rest of the population.​

This is all reasonable, but politically, what prospects for any strong public health measures against virus spread in 2021, once "the vulnerable have been taken care of" & we can get all the young folk back in bars and clubs and restaurants etc etc etc. Months and months before vaccination can reach the whole ppulation, including those segments most responsible for spreading the thing.

It may well turn into an actual realisation of the mutton-head "cocooning" strategy which idiots were promoting this year, with lots & lots of poorly-controlled virus spread amngst younger people, causing lots & lots of health issues short of death.

Closer to my home, I wonder how long it will be possible politically to keep tight border controls in Oz, NZ etc. After a close to COVID-free 2020 in most of the region, I'm not so confident of the prospects for 2021.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I’m pretty sure I’ve already heard of plans for plane boarding to be dependent on evidence of vaccinated status @Eddy Edson . Though of course even that might not necessarily mean a person wasn‘t carrying the virus.

It will be strange times for sure!

 

[helli]

I'm surprised to see phase 6 which includes me as I thought age was the biggest contributing factor by far.
As I have said multiple times, "diabetes" is a very blunt categorisation. And would expect those with other health conditions (or diabetes and other health conditions) to be higher risk. That said, I will not turn down the vaccination.

 

[Eddy Edson]

I’m pretty sure I’ve already heard of plans for plane boarding to be dependent on evidence of vaccinated status @Eddy Edson . Though of course even that might not necessarily mean a person wasn‘t carrying the virus.

It will be strange times for sure!

We've had two "superspreaders" (whatever that actually means) and a couple of non-spreaders leak from hotel quarantine. One of the superspreaders caused Melbourne to come to a halt for ~3 months. The Adelaide one was quickly contained with fast double ring fence contact tracing and isolation before it could spread. The hotel quarantine context made the whole TTI process much simpler.

That's from a tiny number of international arrivals compared to pre-plague levels. If vaccinated travel starts up in a big way next year, and hotel quarantine disappears, I think the risk level perhaps goes up, once arrivals grow enough. Uncertainty as to the extent to which a vaccine will prevent somebody from spreading, people with fake documentation, bungled management - you won't need to have many little failings in the system to get more exposure than we've seen so far, under less controlled conditions.

On the other hand, I didn't think 2020 could turn out as well as it has, so hopefully I'm just being a worrier.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

I'm surprised to see phase 6 which includes me as I thought age was the biggest contributing factor by far.

While this means some 25 year old PWD might get a vaccination a bit too soon it means that some 54 year old PWD is probably at about the right place in the list based on age and the risk added by diabetes.

I imagine they don't want to make each of these groups too small (if they're going to try to keep to the ordering) because that would make managing the process too awkward. But they don't want to have a first come first served process (as happens, more or less, with influenza) because some groups are much more important for this disease.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

Uncertainty as to the extent to which a vaccine will prevent somebody from spreading, people with fake documentation

Yes, the same sorts of concerns were obvious with the idea of immunity passports earlier (the UK government seemed to be imagining mass antibody testing as a way to avoid doing the public health stuff). But that would probably encourage some people to try to get infected (so they could get real antibodies) and would open up an obvious market for forged immunity documents. Fortunately the idea died out (largely because the mass tests turned out not to work that well).

 

[trophywench]

Well .... I went out of this house a week last Friday to go to the GP surgery to have a blood test and then because Pete heard on Sunday that the CV test he'd had on Saturday was positive we decided I better go so he took me for one and Bingo! - I tested positive too.

Problem is of course - we insist on keep breathing in air and have no control whatsoever over what other folk keep breathing out into it.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Yes it will be really interesting to see how the UK roll out rolls out in 2021, and whether the 5 day free-for-all sees an uptick of cases in January as some are expecting?

 

[Eddy Edson]

Well .... I went out of this house a week last Friday to go to the GP surgery to have a blood test and then because Pete heard on Sunday that the CV test he'd had on Saturday was positive we decided I better go so he took me for one and Bingo! - I tested positive too.

Problem is of course - we insist on keep breathing in air and have no control whatsoever over what other folk keep breathing out into it.

Damn! How are you feeling?

 

[rebrascora]

@trophywench
Keeping fingers crossed that you both have a very mild case of it and recover well. Please keep us posted. Do either of you have symptoms?

 

[grovesy]

Yes it will be really interesting to see how the UK roll out rolls out in 2021, and whether the 5 day free-for-all sees an uptick of cases in January as some are expecting?

Well after the scenes at shopping streets at the weekend, we might not have to wait till 2021!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Well .... I went out of this house a week last Friday to go to the GP surgery to have a blood test and then because Pete heard on Sunday that the CV test he'd had on Saturday was positive we decided I better go so he took me for one and Bingo! - I tested positive too.

Problem is of course - we insist on keep breathing in air and have no control whatsoever over what other folk keep breathing out into it.

Oh no!! sorry to read this. Hope it’s only a mild case. Have you had much in the way of symptoms yet?

 

[trophywench]

Well Pete did, a week yesterday he lost his sense of taste and Thursday he said the sandwich I made him - on buttered freshly sliced Tesco's 3 cheese bread, if sliced Chicken Tikka, lettuce and mayo was so dry and tasteless it practically made him heave. 24 hrs later on Friday lunchtime he could taste again. He's been having difficulty breathing all week, but he constantly has difficulty breathing, so just more of the same. Got a GP to ring him Friday afternoon who agreed to give him an AB, but this time a different one, usually been Amoxycillin but now Cytocycline, plus some more Prednisolone.

He's had lots of phone calls and texts from Test & Trace and this afternoon from some Oxford research lot, who'd have been interested in him trying specifically Cytocycline! - from which, and for no other reason, we both assume they think that might help more than the usual suspects of AB.

I've not had a symptom. I am even more lethargic than usual is all.

Can't get Test & Trace up either on my phone which refuses to connect to the internet, even on our home broadband as it refuses to accept the password printed on a carb which came with the router. So I just keep getting Text after Text telling me I haven't completed all the details it requires. That's odd - I haven't completed a single one!!

Since they know my mobile phone number, they'll have to ring me if they want me. I can't make their internet work!

I did try and click a link in an email, where you have to type in a ruddy great random ID they sent by text not email and then it wants a password. What the hell password would that be, then?

 

[Eddy Edson]

This is all reasonable, but politically, what prospects for any strong public health measures against virus spread in 2021, once "the vulnerable have been taken care of" & we can get all the young folk back in bars and clubs and restaurants etc etc etc. Months and months before vaccination can reach the whole ppulation, including those segments most responsible for spreading the thing.

It may well turn into an actual realisation of the mutton-head "cocooning" strategy which idiots were promoting this year, with lots & lots of poorly-controlled virus spread amngst younger people, causing lots & lots of health issues short of death.

Closer to my home, I wonder how long it will be possible politically to keep tight border controls in Oz, NZ etc. After a close to COVID-free 2020 in most of the region, I'm not so confident of the prospects for 2021.

Whitty today with comments completely consistent with "vaccinated cocooning" and flagging that the "science" won't stand in the way of the politics:

At a certain point, society, through political leaders, through elected ministers and through parliament, will say this level of risk is a level of risk that we think it is appropriate to tolerate.

Just as we accept that in an average year 7,000 people die of flu, and in a bad flu year, 20,000 people die of flu. We accept that as that is what happens biologically.

At a certain point you say, ‘actually, the risk is now low enough that we can largely do away with certainly the most onerous things that we have to deal with’.

This will be a kind of gradual retreat from that, but it is a de-risking process rather than it’s just going to go away.

We will de-risk hopefully to a very low level of risk, but I think it’s very unlikely we’ll get to zero level of risk.

Having experienced how powerful, motivating and in fact achievable a "zero COVID" goal is, and noting that no other goal has actually led to good outcomes so far - I think Whitty's message is a worry.