More Covid Restrictions Announced.

[SwanR]

30 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

For us folk having had two jabs it's been suggested that it will be twelve weeks before maximum resistance is achieved

Have you had both jabs already Peter?

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, SwanR said:

Have you had both jabs already Peter?

No, but two of my daughters (frontline NHS) will have had by Tuesday I believe, but my first is booked in in about ten days. Mind you, a local chemist is offering 'no appointment needed' jabs for those over seventy so I could jump the queue I suppose.

[SwanR]

Good to hear that your daughters have been taken care of as frontline NHS workers. In my view they should have been front of the queue given what they face every day and have done for a year now. We all owe so much to those who have battled against the onslaught of Covid. It doesn't matter whether we have been affected personally or not, we should still recognise all those who have literally put their own lives on the line. They have my full respect. 

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, SwanR said:

Good to hear that your daughters have been taken care of as frontline NHS workers.

All four have had their first jabs, two of them only just though. Three of them had their first jabs at the hospital as left-overs so to speak so that there should be no waste. The forth, albeit my first, works for Asperger East Anglia and had her first jab via that organisation. 

[NeilB]

My wife had hers a week ago, she felt a bit rough for a couple of days after.  Most of her school had the vaccine over the same weekend so they were all a little subdued on the Monday!

[Bygoneboozers]

My left arm had its first delivery of 50,000,000,000 recombinant, replication-deficient chimpanzee adenovirus particles, courtesy of AstraZeneca, yesterday. No issues so far other than the expected slightly sore muscle.

Can't wait for this whole thing to be ancient history.

[addicted]

my Son-in-law who is in his early 60's, and  had  pneumonia,  late last Summer and covid last month was given an appointment for a jab last week but on attending for it   was told  that under the circumstances he was too high risk to be given it .

Carole

[Chelsea14Ian]

Did they explain  why.I had pneumonia in the summer,then a operation for lung cancer and was vaccinated. It may be that he had Covid recently. If I was him I would ask for  a explanation. 

 

[thunder]

Friends of ours had covid and were told that they will have to wait 28 days after covid before they can have jab

[addicted]

6 hours ago, Chelsea14Ian said:

Did they explain  why.I had pneumonia in the summer,then a operation for lung cancer and was vaccinated. It may be that he had Covid recently. If I was him I would ask for  a explanation. 

 

He only had it about 3 weeks ago.

 

Carole

[FairTmiddlin]

Had my first jab today. Super efficient local surgery, whole thing like clockwork.

I too had the astra zeneca jab. Talking to the nurse the pfizer jab is not just problematic because of temperatures needed, they also have to mix two parts together to make the injections. and it has to be used within five days or thrown away.

Took the advice of a couple of old nursing friends who advised taking paracetamol two hours before and maximum dose for two days. It's now been 9 hours since the jab and no pain or side effects.

[Regulo]

Why am I the only one getting a load of hassle trying to get this jab? I got a text to tell me I could have it at my local centre last Saturday. Turned up at the appointed time to find a 100 yard queue (in the pouring rain). Joined queue, moved 5 yards in 15 minutes, told no more vaccine, we've run out. About turn and home. Got a letter this morning saying I could book online via the website. Went on there, to find I'm too young! Phoned the 119 line, and after listening to the usual load of waffle and options spoke to an advisor, who told me the website needed updating. I'll either end up having five jabs or none at this rate!

[Smoggy]

I got a text from my gp with a link, clicked it, confirmed date of birth, clicked book now button, chose first slot available (8.10am so shouldn't run out), got a confirmation text.

All in about 3 minutes tops, 2 minutes of that was going back to the forum thread I was reading (it was tea break after all).

[grendel]

I do hope my GP doesnt send a text with a link, as I generally cant extract the link from the text message to open it. my phone not being a smart phone does impose certain limitations, not being able to open links from text is sometimes an advantage, sometimes not.

[Islander]

Well I have no complaints for our doctors. I had a phone call Tuesday just before 1pm. I was asked to confirm my name, address and DofB. Asked if I could attend at 3:55 that afternoon. I arrived early so stayed in my car until 5mins before the appointment. Only a short queue checked in on time taken to a seating area to wait. I didn’t even get to sit down and was called through. Injection done I was sent to another seating area to wait 15mins as I was driving.  Really well organised, all done in just over 20mins. Now just have to wait until Ruth gets hers but she’s 6y younger.

 

Colin 

[Chelsea14Ian]

1 hour ago, grendel said:

I do hope my GP doesnt send a text with a link, as I generally cant extract the link from the text message to open it. my phone not being a smart phone does impose certain limitations, not being able to open links from text is sometimes an advantage, sometimes not.

My jab was at Guys hospital. That text  gave me the option of phoning or click on a link. With Our GP you could  book over the phone.It appears the booking is different  depending  where you are.

[Paul]

I have not really engaged with this thread thus far, as for a start I think there comes a point when you have pretty much said all that there is to say, and as yet my turn for the jab has not arrived, though I think it will not be too long and it is encouraging to hear of so many people getting their vaccination. 

But, having been shopping this morning I have to say that it appears that we, the great unwashed, the army of "little people" have learned very little, despite the rapid approach of the first anniversary of this pandemic crisis. 

I usually shop at Aldi, and whilst not always perfect generally I have found their pandemic measures appropriate and effective however with tomorrow being St Valentine's day I thought I would treat the wife to a special high tea. The local garden center cafe is doing an exquisite take out service but I balk at paying £22.50 per person for a couple of sandwiches, a slice of cake and a cream scone in a cardboard box, no matter how nice it looks and Aldi doesn't have a great range of special tidbits so I thought I would visit another, larger local supermarket. I'll not name and shame them, let's just say that I have been led to believe there are more reasons to shop there. It was very busy and I had to drive to the very edges of the massive car park to find a space. There is not a trolley to be had anywhere near the store, I had to trek halfway back to the car to find one. On arriving at the entrance there is no entry control whatsoever, no person advising it is safe, or otherwise to enter, no clever traffic light system and so shoppers are flooding in and the store is, in the words of my generation rammed. There is barely room inside to swing a cat let alone maintain a "social" distance. I'm tempted not to stay, but along with the things I want for tomorrow there are some essentials to get so I join the slow moving throng of people making their way around the store. To make things worse some bright spark brain dead moron has decided to completely rearrange the store, the freezers are now where the alcohol was, the alcohol occupies the old bakery section so people are staggering back and forth looking for things that have inexplicably moved. There is not a member of staff to be seen anywhere on the shop floor to ask, so it's one giant game of treasure hunt with people walking backwards and forwards. It's like rush hour on Oxford Street. To make things worse there are people ambling around, noses glued to their mobile phones, or standing in the middle of the aisle discussing what happened on Coronation St last night or whether the clues for The Masked Singer are too easy. Half of the check outs are closed, but not for social distancing, adjacent tills are manned, then there are a group which are not. The queues for the open check outs are halfway down the aisles, meaning those people still shopping are having to weave in and out of those queuing to pay. The queue for the self service is such that it is completely obliterating the special Valentines display so those looking to buy the over priced flowers on offer have to push through the line of people waiting for the self check out area. There are customers complaining to the check out supervisor who is trying to apologise but they are apparently very short staffed. There can be no excuse for that, we are in the middle of one of the biggest unemployment crises since WWII.

We have been doing this for almost a year now and if this continues we will be doing it for another. I hear people complaining about the police state, the enforcement of lock down restrictions but sadly what I saw this morning suggests not enough is being done. Shops demonstrating such blatant disregard for public safety during these unprecedented times should be held to account, there is no excuse for such short staffing other than corporate greed. And people who choose to pay more attention to their mobile phone than the welfare of those around them are the lowest of the low, they should have those phones confiscated and crushed. 

 

[JennyMorgan]

Just watched a film on Netflix called Contagion. Filmed before Covid 19, remarkably prophetic! 

Had my jab this morning, massive queue, felt threatened by that. That aside, it was a doddle. 

Had a very slight headache for twenty minutes or so and a slight temperature for half an hour when I got home. All in all, on a scale of 1 to 10, possibly .05, of no consequence whatsoever. 

My wife had a sensation in her arm for a while and is sore where the needle went in, that's it. I've pressed all around where the needle went in & no soreness or sensation whatsoever. Big non event really but glad that it's done.

[SwanR]

Paul I think you're probably sadly right about some of the supermarkets. I was ok with the restrictions last year, especially when the one way signs were in place in the stores and they were counting people in and out. But once I could get shopping delivery slots we switched to mostly having everything delivered, and have continued to do so.

However this week one of the larger names let us down massively. Early Wednesday morning I got an email that my delivery for that day was cancelled and not to worry as they wouldn't have taken any money from my account. Excuse me? Cancelled? How? Why? All I could do was wait until 8am to get on the phone to customer services. Sure enough that fulfillment store had apparently cancelled all their orders because of the weather. Hmmm ... maybe the roads were bad across the other side of Norwich, I don't know. Maybe the side roads and people's paths were icy. And yes, ok, safety of employees etc. ... I'm sure they must have had good reason. But what a time to let us down. And with absolutely no explanation on their email. That was almost the worst part of all. Appalling customer service.

I had almost run out of everything. It was a large stocking up order worth over £100. No chance of booking anything else until Sunday. And for that I have switched back to another large name but one that has not let me down and has been extremely good.

There was no choice but for my husband to take his chances on the icy paths and walk down to Roy's for a few essentials. Or he could have driven to Tesco's. But the other point is that we have been avoiding going into any shops since well before Christmas. This did therefore lead to some anxiety and a certain amount of upset and incredulity when we realised that the order really wasn't going to come. Must have been a lot of other people left in the same situation, left to take their own chances against the ice and snow and Covid!

[Ray]

I think it's OK to mention names in a positive way, Tesco has been outstanding in every way throughout this pandemic! We had a delivery on Monday afternoon while snow was on the ground and still falling. The driver mentioned that two other big stores had cancelled everyone's delivery that day!

[ExSurveyor]

Tesco have been really good with click and collect and limiting numbers in store. No one gets in without a mask or a very good excuse.

Morrisons is horrendous in normal times and are even worse now, best avoided.

[unclemike]

here asda is worst, morrisons beats all

[DAVIDH]

2 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

Just watched a film on Netflix called Contagion. Filmed before Covid 19, remarkably prophetic! 

I watched it last week, and the accuracy, the terms used, the reactions, right down to ant-vaxxers,  are all nearly spot on. The amazing thing is that it was made in 2011, not now, as an interpretation of how the SARS epidemic could have gone.  I heard Piers Morgan ask Matt Hancock last week whether it was true that him watching the film, influenced their thinking on how to handle the pandemic. He said it had - that and other strands of information the government received. Highly recommended viewing.

[ExSurveyor]

Matt Hancock was saying the image on the film of a lottery for the vaccine was a big influence on his view of getting mass vaccination planning started in January 2020.

As I type, a paramedic car has just pulled up to jab the 96 year old MIL.

The community programme is in full swing.

 

 

[SwanR]

32 minutes ago, psychicsurveyor said:

Morrisons is horrendous in normal times and are even worse now, best avoided

Morrison’s are my saviours and have been for a long while. They seemed to manage to get their delivery slots ramped up well ahead of other supermarkets back in Essex. And I’m finding them much better for availability than other supermarkets here as well. The food has been good and very few substitutions or items missing.