My experience of getting the Covid-19 vaccine in England
No click bait titles in this post but I felt it was somewhat my duty to write about my experience of getting the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine last weekend. Let me lay my cards on the table - there will be no so-called balance in this article, I am a fully paid up member of the pro-vaccine, pro-mask community. To balance the real scientific benefit of vaccines and masks against people's thoughts, feelings and "pseudo-science" is wrong - and not getting the vaccine or wearing a mask, unless medically exempt, is also wrong.
I have been checking the NHS.uk website for many weeks to check and see if I was eligible to receive the vaccine or receive it early. I was checking Twitter often to see if there was any available walk-in centres in London that I could receive a dose - but to no avail. On Bank Holiday Monday, I was one of many thousands who attempted, and failed, to go to Twickenham Stadium (external link - Evening Standard) to get a dose before a significant numberexpired - again with no luck. After this, I decided to just go back and check every couple of days on the NHS website until last Monday when I was finally able to book the appointment - just before the government announced it was possible for my age group.
Booking the vaccine is pretty easy - although it does require you to be registered, in some form, on the NHS databases - most likely through your GP. Do not worry if you have no NHS number to hand since it will be able to establish your eligibility through other means. The government will also send multiple follow up messages via SMS and a letter by post, which includes your NHS number, advising you to now book as well as information in many languages. To my surprise when I logged on the booking portal, I managed to get two convenient appointments - my first dose just a few days later and the second in mid-August. Extremely surprising considering the standard wait time for the second vaccine is 12 weeks.
The Wembley (Vaccine) Experience
I don't care how cringe or sad this sounds - I was quite excited to get my first dose. After a healthy 90 minute walk from home to Wembley, I arrived at the dedicated vaccination centre which was housed in a disused office block a few minutes walk from Wembley Park and Stadium. Signage to the vaccine centre was very clear and could be seen all around.
I arrived about twenty minutes prior to my appointment - although you are advised to only arrive five minutes before your scheduled time - they still let me in upon checking my details on the email confirmation. Strangely this was then followed by them sticking a coloured dot on you - I didn't quite realise at the time why this was, however it soon became clear. Green was for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine whilst Orange was for Pfizer-BioNTech. Moderna, the only other MRHA approved vaccine, was not on offer at this site. Currently, only Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are approved for under-40s and thus accurate identification of people taking different vaccines need to be made. I then proceeded onwards to the actual building to get the vaccine.
I then went past the first floor offering the AstraZeneca vaccine and onto the, far busier, second floor offering Pfizer. Once in, I was advised for the third time to show my appointment details (at least security is tight!), had my orange sticker removed and was taken to a desk to share my personal details as well as NHS number. After handing this over, I was very quickly taken to another booth to get my vaccine injected and it was all over within two minutes...such an anti-climax...however to make up for the loss of the green sticker they give you a "I've had my Covid Vaccination" one instead to tell everybody around you that you've had it. Quickly you will then be ushered to a socially distanced seating area to sit for fifteen minutes to check there are no abnormal reactions before you can then be released back into the world. For the next 36 hours or so, I did experience a sore arm however it was not limiting and I felt quite normal for the intervening period. Within a day of getting the vaccine, my first dose already appeared on the NHS app allowing me to prove that I had taken it - which will come in handy in the future for travel abroad.
In all, an extremely efficient process that shows how the UK can do things well and right sometimes. I am not saying everybody's experience will be a duplicate of mine - some may have worse reactions or a greater struggle for appointments - but I commend those who have worked on the whole vaccination effort throughout this period. We must also remember that the UK is extremely privileged for the position we currently find ourselves in. Billions of people across the globe do not have fair and equitable access to the Covid vaccination and may have to wait another two to three years until they have their opportunity to get one, if at all. For those of us in the UK and the global north, we will not be protected until everybody is protected - including those outside of our own borders. In this globalised world, we must all fight this together - and encourage our own governments to share more vaccinations to all for the global public health good. I recommend taking a look at this great video here/below for more information on why global vaccine equity is a necessity.
As the vaccine programme is now open to all people aged over 18 in the UK, I urge you all to get yours as soon as possible whilst not forgetting habits such as mask wearing and hand washing. This will put the worst of the pandemic behind us all.
To book your vaccine in the UK go to nhs.uk. You can also donate to Vaccinaid.org - backed by Unicef - to help raise funds to improve global access to vaccines.