Boosters

Neighbour of mine, 61, just got booster in Citywest. Just called in, though it's not advertised as walk in session., and was taken straight away.

My parents are getting theirs on Sunday!! A relief to be honest

There's a couple of curious things about the booster programme and especially about the sole use of the Moderna vaccine in the walk in centres. The HSE repeated yesterday, that they have over 1 million doses of the Moderna vaccine that are close to their expiry date(hence their exclusive use in the walk in centres), but they also said that in the past week, of the doses given nationally, 65% were Pfizer and just 35% Moderna. So if they have such a large number of Moderna doses close to their expiry date, why are they still predominantly using the Pfizer vaccine rather than the Moderna one and why is the Moderna one only being pushed through the walk in centres ? Also if the Moderna doses being given now are truly close to their expiry date, then why have the cards that you get after you get after your vaccine that until just a few weeks ago, gave your name, type of vaccine, batch number, expiry date and date vaccine was administered, been changed in the past few weeks, with the expiry date of your vaccine having been removed ?

Finally, how did the HSE end up with over a million doses of unused Moderna close to their expiry date, in the first place ? Was nobody tracking the expiry dates on their vaccine batches, to have a million doses all reaching their their expiry date very shortly and having to try to use them all at the last minute and even then, to limit their use to just walk in centres rather than vaccination centre appointments, gp surgeries and pharmacies too. Very strange.

Can somebody clarify for me the following:

1) Will all those in the 50-59 age group receive text messages confirming their appointment time for the booster jab?

2) Will the booster shot be from the same manufacturer (Pfizer, Moderna,etc.) as the vaccine you have already been injected with.

Thanks.

I took a booster today in Nenagh, I had to give a neighbour (60's) a lift and so I decided to take one too (50's)

Neighbour had an afternoon appointment for last Tuesday but afternoon was cancelled due to the storm, no re-appointment, not a thing since.

I suggested we go to the walk in today. Very quiet, no queue and only 4 or 5 people in the after waiting room

Moderna given

My wife and I had boosters on Sunday in Portlaoise. We arrived first thing thinking everyone would be having a lie in but how wrong we were, the queue at that stage was almost 2 hours. I didn't mind waiting, we were happy to get it. Our initial vaccination was 2 x Pfzier, we both got Moderna as expected.

Most of the immunocompromised age groups would be 30-59, not under 30, so that probably doesn't account for the 65-35 split, we'll see if when pharmacies are restocked they'll be getting 100% Moderna to cater for the 30-49 age groups, I would guess they won't.  And the fact that the expiry date is a legislated one rather than an actual expiration date on the product is immaterial, the fact is that the HSE has known for months that their Moderna supplies were due to expire shortly and seem to have left it till almost the last minute to use them, unless that is, they aren't close to their expiration date, in which case they'll still be using them well into the new year.

Moderna was approved as a booster a few weeks after Pfizer. It's also just a half dose and limited to 30+.

So if they were planning on using it on the younger groups, well they can't. It being a half dose, basically doubles what stock they had overnight.

Walk in clinics are done in age blocks. So they know if a walk in clinic is 50-59 on a Monday, then they can all recieve moderna.

The next day it's back to at risk (group 4/7/immuno) there most likely would quite a few of those under 30. So it just makes it smoother stocking Pfizer that day. Otherwise you're splitting groups 4/7/immuno into subgroups of under 30 and over 30 and doing them on different days.

A less complicated rollout is a smoother and faster one.

Yes but the question remains whether they all want to work over Xmas after a long year of it. The vaccinations centres are only closed for 2 days.

Got the Moderna booster yesterday at the National Show Center (Swords). Not too much waiting in the morning. (Close to 2 hours for the all process)

Today my wife is in bed sleeping and I feel like I have been running a marathon yesterday 🤣

And that was half a dose from what I read…

(She got Moderna for the first two shots, and I got AstraZeneca.)

Picked up by Reuters

I got one for tomorrow by ringing my GP and I'm in my 30s (just over 5 months since 2nd dose) - see this IT article from today that says GPs and pharmacies can give boosters to all over-16s:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/coronavirus/gps-and-pharmacies-told-they-can-give-boosters-to-all-over-16s-1.4756045

Yeah, it varies by GP. Mine is only doing over 70s at the moment.