I never had a flu jab until now. Well, I’m young-ish, healthy-ish. What’s the worst that can happen?
The common cold got short shrift too. I was that person who dragged myself into the office with a head full of snotters and looked down my dripping nose at the skivers calling in sick.
If Covid’s achieved anything it’s cured me of my selfishness.
There’s nothing like a pandemic to make you realise the world doesn’t revolve around your sturdy teuchter frame.
And a lot of us now understand that, actually, there are people less robust than us who deserve to be protected from our germs.
Maybe not enough of us, but still. We wear our masks, swab our noses and press on in hope of better days.
So Monday saw me back at the Dewars Centre in Perth for my third, fourth and, please God, final jabs of the year. A booster of your finest Pfizer/BioNTech please and a flu shot in the other arm while you’re about it.
It couldn’t have been simpler.
I booked online the day before, took my pick from a selection of slots, turned up, answered a few questions and walked out with a smug skip in my step and something close to 95% protection from Covid-19.
The flu jab offers 70-80% protection and the likelihood of milder symptoms if you’re one of the unlucky lot who might still be infected.
So yeah I’m pretty much a superhero now.
Covid booster changes caused confusion
Turns out I’m also pretty lucky. At least, compared to some of the folk who were turned away from clinics this week.
Monday was also the day the waiting period between second inoculation and booster jab was reduced from six months to three.
I heard the news on the car radio on the way in to Perth.
It’s part of efforts to limit the spread of the Omicron variant – the very development that had nudged me into booking my appointment – this winter.
Omicron has sparked global concern but little is known about the covid variant 🦠
Scotland's National Clinical Director @jasonleitch sets out when things will be clearer 👇#KayBurley MR pic.twitter.com/HIewjrR7rJ
— Kay Burley (@KayBurley) December 1, 2021
But in the space between the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation issuing its new advice and that advice being put into action by the people running the clinics, the message got a little tangled in places.
Some well intentioned members of the public went along to some venues on Tuesday and Wednesday, thinking they’d be fine because they were within the new three-month limit, and were turned away when they got there.
At this stage, who’s not confused by the Covid booster programme?
It’s regrettable. And apologies have been made.
Nobody likes being inconvenienced. Nobody’s really that sure what the rules are on anything any more. We’re all just stumbling through and trying not to kill the people we love.
To be honest, I wasn’t actually certain I was entitled to my booster before I went. I just filled in my details on the booking form, figuring they’d stop me if I was too early.
Turns out I’d scraped past the old six-month cut-off time with two weeks to spare.
I was quite prepared to come back another day if I’d been premature though.
I dare say most of the people turned away in the confusion will feel the same.
Like I say, a lot of us have got a lot less selfish during the pandemic.
A lot of us have gained a fresh perspective on what suffering really looks like too.
And it’s not having to make two journeys to Perth for a jab that might save you from joining the more than 9,000 Scots who have died after contracting Covid-19.
Covid critics doing what Covid critics do
Naturally, opponents of the Scottish Government seized on the confusion as a chance to make political hay on Thursday.
They’re politicians. That’s what they do.
No doubt Covid sceptics and anti-vaxxers will also have used it as a stick to knock the vaccination programme.
They’re conspiracy theorists. That’s what they do. And that’s why we don’t pay any attention to them.
But most of the folk who’ve been rolling up their sleeves and making sacrifices for knocking on for two years now will have seen it for what it was. An unfortunate blip in what has been a superhuman effort to protect the public.
And actually. See when you stop and think about it.
To have all the protocols and materials that ensure clinic staff and volunteers are working within the law on the new three-month limits updated by Thursday? That is extraordinarily good going.
So no, the booster rollout has maybe not been as well-oiled as earlier stages of the programme. But at this stage in the game I’m not about to start knocking anyone involved in it.
We’re lots of us a little less selfish maybe, but they’re among the real superheroes.
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