Bantamzen
Established Member
From the news, it appears that a vaccine (if/when it becomes available) will only be offered to those >50.
All this time, they have been giving us the impression (e.g. from the number of doses purchased in advance from pharmaceutical companies) that every one who wants it can get it.
This comes after the schoolboy error with Excel spreadsheets for track and trace. What a shambles.
This was always going to be the case, sometimes you have to look beyond the political rhetoric and look at the logistics. If/when a vaccine passes all testing and certification, it will take a while for stocks to be built up, remembering that more or less the entire globe will be scrambling for it. So getting 65-70 million vaccinations will not happen overnight, it will likely take months at least. So it is right and proper to say those most at risk, and those that take care of them get absolute priority. Everyone else will just have to wait for the option to have it.
If that's the case then why delay in easing restrictions for those under 50? Could it be because the strategy is now to wait until a vaccine becomes available and then only vaccinate those over 50 whilst at the same time removing restrictions for those under 50?
Probably because it is not so easy to implement an age-based restriction, in fact it probably would be very undesirable as it could cause serious issues to the economy & industry. Turning 50 doesn't suddenly make you more vulnerable, these age bands are simply statistical markers to break down the data.