Meanwhile, here in "efficient, well run, well organized (smirk)" Switzerland we have vaccinated 482k people.

It's not really a surprise when you look at the idiots in Bern in the Swiss Federal Council. Chief idiot Simonetta Sommaruga "trained as a pianist before studying English and Romance languages....a degree she didn't even finish." (wikipedia). I guess to be expected when your country is run by people with no private sector experience!

Simonetta Sommaruga - trained as a piano player
Ueli Maurer - farmer
Alain Berset - career lecturer/politician
Guy Parmelin - wine grower
Ignazio Cassis - went to med school (the only educated one amongst them)
Viola Amherd - public sector lawyer and career politician
Karin Keller-Sutter - career lecturer/politician

Amazing that a country as rich as Switzerland didn't have the foresight to use that wealth to purchase enough vaccines ahead of other nations. But when you look at the people in charge (zero private sector experience) it's not really a surprise at all.

How many of the UK politicians are career politicians? And never worked a day in their life?

Maybe they are doing better with vaccinations, almost anything else, I prefer Switzerland

PS educated they are all, they just did not go to uni and that is not not being educated.....!

Wow an amazingly harsh criticism of the Swiss government.... while they haven't handled the crisis well in my opinion, it's a but over the top! Ok so maybe they don't have as you say "private sector experience" it's not to say their experience isn't worthwhile....

If you're attempting to draw a favourable comparison with the UK government I'm sure we could spend some time going of the virtues and career experiences of Boris Johnson (sacked for lies in his private sector role as a journalist) or indeed Gavin Williamson, Michael Gove, Priti Patel et al....

It's good to see the vaccine rollout going well in UK and Ch do need to speed things up, maybe other factors also play a part like the NHS having the ability to integrate the vaccine rollout perhaps more so than the Swiss or indeed the fact the UK certified the vaccines much earlier than the Swiss

I completely fail to see any connection between these politician's backgrounds and the Swiss government's handling of Covid and vaccinations. I don't know anything about the individuals mentioned, not being eligible to vote here yet, but I can't help thinking that the set of mixed skills and backgrounds ought to be a good thing.

"Private sector experience" ? Do you mean industry? Successful entrepreneurs are the last people I'd want in charge of a country. Always out for what they can get at the expense of others, hardly ideal.

About 25% I believe, very much the minority. EU parliament has way more.

So will the lessons learned from the UK be that their vaccination rollout ( carried out with military precision )
was won on the playing fields of Eton ?

For those of you that have family in the UK a little tip which might be useful -

If your GP doesn't have your mobile phone number you usually get a letter from the NHS inviting you for vaccination. These vaccinations are usually some distance from where you live. My brother and several of my UK neighbours booked their jab online , drove and got it -which is great- but then the next day or two their GPs called inviting them in to the surgery which was a few minutes away.
My UK neighbour drove a long way last week in the snow to get vaccinated, got home and her surgery rang in the afternoon offering her the vaccine...

You are welcome to London. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-en...ondon-56060367

15,000,000 may have had their first dose but how many have had the second?

My 87 year old mother had her first dose on 25th January, she will get her second dose on 13th April, 3 days before the U.K. government’s 90 day limit! In my opinion they are going against the scientists by delaying the second dose to get ahead of every other country for the first dose. So, in fact they have managed to give 15,000,000 half of the recommended dose.

The logic is that it's better to have more people given the already quite high level of protection provided by the first dose than to give fewer people a slightly higher protection. The quoted protection stats are very cautious, but basically even if the first dose only gave >50% protection (and most estimates are much higher) and the second dose 100%, the numbers work out in favour of this approach.

51% * x > 100% * 1/2x

I get that for those of us that are not in the vulnerable groups, I just wish they had decided to do the double dose in time for the vulnerable and then elongate the second dose for the rest of us.

I read today that they have DNR’s in place for those victims with learning difficulties, no idea if that is true or just inflammatory journalism but it does cause me concern for my Mum and everyone else like her. Such a sh*t time and cos I have not seen her for over a year I am a little sensitive about these things. Trying to keep the logical reasoning onboard gets harder.

I suspect they simply don’t know what period of time is optimal between doses.

The French were saying yesterday that Covid survivors only need one dose to re-boost their immunity. If that is the case the period between recovery and a dose could be almost a year.

Regretfully we do not know what we don’t know, ... Yet

Thankfully they will be completely and utterly vindicated on this point.

There is no country that I can think of that did not in some way mismanage the crisis.

But I guess we won't have a full perspective until its all over and we have the benefit of hindsight.

Astra Zeneca have actually now shown that the vaccine is more effective with a 12 week gap than the shorter 3-4 week gap. The WHO have now praised the British scientists for being brave.

As of yesterday evening, 539,630

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations

a. what has the vaccination status in Switzerland got to do with the status in the UK?

b. what has it got to do with someone located in London?

c. the only number that really matters - population dead in UK from coronavirus = 0.18% and in CH = 0.13%

We could also mention Switzerland not having to build a load of emergency hospitals and not being in full lockdown for months on end...

It's been tough for everyone, but spouting crap about a set of elected politicians who've done a better job by all evidence than your chosen example is dumb.

I actually had my first vaccination in the UK this morning. I am 63 and had a text yesterday asking if I wanted it.
What was very interesting was that it was at my GPs surgery - and one of the Drs actually did my jab but the army were running the whole process.
One of the soldiers told me that they were inoculating 8 x more in an hour than would have happened and it certainly was carried out in a very military way- no waiting for anyone. I was very impressed.

In England one might get an invite through three different ways.


1) Letter from NHS England, log on to website, book both vaccinations, less than 12 weeks apart.


2) SMS with log on to website, maybe book first vaccination or both, does vary.


1 & 2 do have a phone contact in case someone not able to use website



3) Phone call direct from your Doctors surgery but that Doctors surgery may not be doing the vaccinations, but they will tell you where to go.
I did hear on one occasion a few weeks back, doctors surgery were phoning people 9am to ask if they could go that day at 10.30. It was simply a bit disorganised at first, taking into account the storage of vaccine etc.


Nothing like this done before, so a few hic-cups along the way, but from the people I have communicated with it is well up and running now for approximately 95 to 97% locations of England.


4) I believe for people lower down the list to get vaccination, they can request to go on a waiting list, in the case of any left over vaccinations not used that day Might mean as short as 10 minutes notice. Reminds me a bit like the stand by lists for flights with airlines in the olden days.

I am certainly not impressed with the status of vaccination here - but this is a load of horseshit and shows that you don't know how government works.