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covid vaccine: would you go private ?

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by bigmac, Dec 11, 2020.

  1. bigmac
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    bigmac Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    if you could jump the queue and pay for a private treatment--would you ?
  2. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I had private healthcare through my employer for 11 years, I quit this year and am very happy I gave it up, it was a huge waste of money as it was a benefit in kind and I was taxed on it, and in 2020 they (the insurer) doubled my premium.

    If I could, I would do it specifically to get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine in preference to the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine, does that go against my principles, yes, am I a hypocrite in that case, yes.

    I want to be able to spend time with my children before I die, that's what would motivate me to queue jump, in reality I haven't even thought about searching for ways to do that and I'm not about to start, I think the Oxford vaccine will be delayed long enough that I have a chance at the Pfizer or Moderna options.
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  3. bigmac
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    bigmac Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    what do you think it could be done privately for ? ive no idea of the actual cost.
  4. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

    It wouldn’t surprise me. I used to have injections done for overseas travel privately sometimes. The employer paid the bill but I arranged it.

    Also before I travelled to the Philippines I had my jabs updated. There was a company in the town centre that specialised in them. Try Googling locally. I cannot remember how much they cost.
  5. bigmac
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    bigmac Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    i posed the same question on a local --very active--community facebook group--a lot of replies saying they dont want the vaccine--at all. a few would pay to get it quicker. a fee of £50 has been suggested.

    so--refuse a vaccine and stare death in the face...or front up £50 and enjoy the rest of your life.
  6. aposhark
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    aposhark Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    It's not really a difficult question to ask ourselves, bigmac ;)
  7. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    About two hundred quid maybe, not sure, the Pfizer vaccine is about £20 a pop so that's £40 and it costs you even to set eyes on a private consultant, actually if it were a private consultant his charges would be about £400 for a single meeting I only ever made one claim on my insurance in 11 years and that was the fee for the consultation.

    So lets say it is the nurse that is employed by the private consultant in the private hospital, so he or she administers the vaccine, twice, I guess they would charge him or her out at £60 to £80 pounds an hour, so you need to add that to the cost of the vaccine but then who sells anything at cost so lets introduce a mark-up lets say 100% mark-up for the actual vaccine, so £60 times two plus £20 times two times the mark-up on the product so that comes to

    First vaccination dose £40 (£20 cost price with mark-up)
    First clinical visit £60

    Second vaccination dose £40
    Second clinical visit £60

    So £200, maybe, just maybe, could be more.

    In my industry we charge out people at a rate of about £80 to £100 an hour (we are cheap by the way), a ten minute appointment would be at minimum a 1 unit charge and that's one hour, I'm fairly sure that private doctors and hospitals operate the same way, as most people are having the bill paid by the insurance company so don't really care.

    Note I hadn't read anyone else's replies when I posted this, I'm not sure you will be able to find anyone that could or would do it privately and that is as it should be in a public health emergency.

    Is there any news of your wife being vaccinated early Malcolm?

    That alone, if it does turn out that it prevents transmission, should be a big help to you.
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2020
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  8. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

  9. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I don't think any business is going to be able to access private supplies of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines at this time, the cold chain management alone for Pfizer would be complex and they could not guarantee that they would sell them all before they spoiled.

    It is going to be a state programme and as I said, so it should be, I would be a hypocrite if I could be but it is moot as I don't think it will be possible to get privately until very late next year in western countries, now in the Philippines it will probably be possible to jump the queue but they will, I suspect, be getting Sputnik V, if they get anything at all.

    As always I could be wrong but I'm not sure I would trust someone who claimed to be able to supply the Pfizer vaccine privately at this time, wide open for abuse of trust.
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2020
  10. bigmac
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    bigmac Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    £200 to save my life ? Where do i go ?

    My wife has heard the home wil be getting it this month. Wont be too long before the injection team will need an armed guard.
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  11. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

    You will be nearer the top of the list. Shouldn’t be too long, surely.
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  12. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I know Malcolm, if my guess was correct I'd be saying the same, more than happy to pay that but we live in a society and it is not that hard to avoid disaster, at least for me, for a few more months, while I would prefer the Pfizer or Moderna high tech modern solution, if I can't get it I will still be happy with the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine, the big plus with the Astra Zeneca trial is that no one in the control group who received the vaccine got hospitalised even if they got SARS-CoV-2, so less effective than Pfizer but no-one died.

    As you pointed out yourself there are a huge number of anti-vaxers who don't want this and that is madness, so I don't think there will be huge pressure to get it except from us more elderly people.
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  13. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    To expand on my view, I was going out for groceries for most of the UK epidemic but as the epidemic ramped up this last month I stopped that and get deliveries instead, that's costing me probably up to 10% extra for what I buy, but contact is minimal and I am meticulous about cleaning anything coming into my flat, fairy liquid is my saviour :D

    Interestingly my Scottish daughter Gemma is similarly extremely careful about goods received where she lives just outside London and she is very fit and active and in her early thirties.

    Me I am just sitting this out, it is s h i t being under constant pressure and it is turning me into an agoraphobe but I can live with it, right now the thing I am most looking forward to is switching mode at home from work to home at the end of next week.

    When you work from home every day and have taken next to no holidays it is miserable.

    I can understand that for others it is harder, if was older I might enjoy going to the pub at lunchtime for food and a pint and that would have been denied me this year but I am still working and in a privileged position compared to most.

    edit: I am also ramping up my online food and drink orders now to stock pile for Christmas, got one coming this afternoon.
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2020
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  14. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

    I by contrast at 65, take my kid to school, go out to the shops, go to work in a silly environment where people wear masks over their chin etc etc. I try and avoid getting too close to people but it isn’t always possible. I don’t hang around at school or in the shops to keep exposure time to a minimum. But I know oldies that do not go out at all.

    I also make low carb food choices as mitigation and take vitamin D. I ensure that I eat foods containing vitamin D. Until I get vaccinated I will continue along those lines.

    Suggestion. Spend that £200 on the right food.
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  15. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    Every picture I have ever seen of you John, be it on linked-in or your old profile pictures here you looked very fit and healthy ;) :)

    I'm not :D

    edit: for me it is about safety, isolation makes a small difference to my life but I have some degree of certainty and that is comforting, I just have to wait it out until I get a vaccine which might not prevent the disease but will probably prevent me dying from it.

    At which point I will get back to enjoying my future and hopefully improving my overall health.
  16. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

    Anyone can.
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  17. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

  18. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    I did an edit after I replied :)

    I know but in this climate not without risk.

    On the other thread watch that video I posted it validates a lot of what both of us have been saying throughout this and even explains Sweden if you read between the lines a bit ;)
  19. Druk1
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    Druk1 Well-Known Member

  20. oss
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    oss Somewhere Staff Member

    In some of the research there has seen mention of HIV sequences in the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the sequences are not expressed the same way as in CD4 T Cell HIV infections but there are similarities in the genetic sequence.

    It is not known if these sequences have any effect in human infections but the key aspect of HIV is that it learned to elude the human immune system and there are aspects of SARS-CoV-2 which similarly elude the human immune system, part of that is the suppression of the interleukin response in infected cells, it is that response from infected cells which activates the T-Cell response and the development and production of antibodies.

    This is a simplistic explanation on my part and not that accurate, I am not a microbiologist, but I do have a good general understanding of this stuff.

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