Vaccine: Why younger people should take precedence – Yorkshire Post Letters

REGARDING the allocation of the Covid vaccine, I would like to make the following point.

My wife and I are 71 years old, with two adult children. One is married with two children, and the other is in a long-term relationship. Both have jobs which involve regular contact with children and the general public.

Now, as parents, if we were able to choose who should receive the vaccine, we would choose our children before us. I wonder how many other parents would do the same.

Anyway, the point I am making is that we believe that the current vaccination rollout, which is restricted to age, and key worker status, should be reconsidered.

If, for example, the main rationale for the allocations is for those ‘most vunerable’, then it is a subjective call as to who fits this description. Teachers for example, for some reason fail to qualify, and I am sure there are many other professions who could make a claim.

I am aware, of course, that ‘most vunerable’ really means those most likely to die if contracting Covid, but for me, that doesn’t way lay the uneasy feeling that maybe the system is unfairly biased. My wife and I are cosily secure at home, whilst many are having to get out each day and face the prospect of exposure.

If there is a groundswell of similar thinking in the population, especially in the over 70s say, then maybe the Government would have a rethink about vaccine allocation, even though I understand the logistic difficulties surrounding that.

Even so, it’s a thought.

From: Bridget Duncan, Pontefract.

AT last we have vaccines available to help us through the Covid nightmare. The early sessions of vaccine delivery seem to have gone very well, and we should in equal measure be proud of, and grateful to the tireless efforts, of all involved.

This week also sees the rollout of seven mass vaccination centres round the country, a cause for celebration, and an opportunity for Nadhim Zahawi, Minister for Vaccine Deployment, to do the morning ‘media round’ to give the nation up-to-date information.

Sadly, in my opinion, his interview on the BBC Today programme was a master class in evasion and obfuscation. Justin Webb interviewed him in a very courteous manner, using clear, direct questions, and giving the Minister chance to answer without undue pressure or interruption. (I believe John Humphries would have ‘shredded’ him).

Questions included why the centres were only to operate 12 hours per day, why the anti-social hours could not be used for such people as police, medical staff and teachers if the over 80s were (understandably) unable or unwilling to fill those slots, and crucially whether the reason for the 12 hour opening was lack of available vaccine or staff. Despite Webb’s best efforts the answers given were at best vague, and clearly had a ‘political agenda’ underpinning them. When asked about where the centres were that were opening today, he included Wakefield on the list...not true, though it is in the pipeline for the near future.

Overall I was left with the impression of a Minister (another one) who is clearly not across the details of his brief.

From: Steve Wilson, Idle, Bradford.

COMMON sense has been as short in supply as a vaccine in the last year or so.

Credit then to the simplicity of the suggestion ventured by The Yorkshire Post for a national pharmacy-led vaccination programme.

But don’t hold your breath because, as this has not been conceived by a focus group of luvvies with a snappy mantra to boot, it has as much chance as the proverbial snowflake in hell. I hope I am wrong.

From: Gareth Robson, Kent House Road, Beckenham.

MUCH as I commend The Yorkshire Post’s regular and forthright criticism of the goon currently in charge of education in England, might I suggest you direct your ire instead at the goon-in-chief, the organ-grinder rather than the monkey?

I refer to the deeply peculiar squatter in 10 Downing Street but I cannot bear to type his name.

From: Dave Ellis, Magdalen Lane, Hedon.

WHAT a joyous article by Ruby Kitchen about the benefits of gardening during this current lockdown (The Yorkshire Post, January 7).

Those residents in North Yorkshire who are local to Harlow Carr can benefit from fresher air on frosty mornings and temporary forget their worries and concerns whilst looking at and enjoying the new year early flowering plants, like snow drops and soon the dwarf daffodils varieties, February Gold and Tete Tete, which will be providing vibrant shades of yellow.

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

IT is all very well people being critical of Boris Johnson making U-turns which are inconvenient to many of the population, but he has to react to an ever-changing situation and all he can do is follow the advice of the experts in the field of viruses.

Boris is a human being with human failings, not a modern day Merlin. Sir Keir Starmer, were he in Boris’s shoes, would be obliged to do the same. He did suggest a full lockdown sooner but there would still have been an uproar from some sections of his own party. Yes, it is very inconvenient to many, but would they rather many thousands more succumb to Covid-19?

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