The nationwide campaign to vaccinate oldies is hailed as a world-beating success by ministers.
That boast rings hollow here in Yorkshire, where deliveries of the drug are being held back so that slower regions can catch up.
Is this a laudable government strategy, to ensure everyone has the same chance to get the jab?
Or is it punishment for the North, where 67% of the first cohort of the most vulnerable have been vaccinated while they lag behind in London?
The politicians may argue it is the former. Up ‘ere, we know different. It feels like we’re getting it in the neck, not the arm – yet again.
And this is personal. The jab that goes to someone where the system is failing may be the one that would have saved my life. Or the life of my 75-year-old wife.
As I am 77, with some underlying health conditions like most people of that age, I am due to be vaccinated.
I was contacted by text message on Tuesday afternoon inviting me to make an appointment. I made that request immediately, and got an email acknowledgement.
Since then, I have heard nothing. Is my jab on the way to London?
Nadhim Zahawi, the Vax Minister, insists that no vaccine is being taken away from Yorkshire and moved to other regions of the country.
Do you agree with Paul? Share your view in the comment section below.
That’s not what medics here are saying, and I trust them more than a fast-talking politicians.
Dr Richard Vautrey, a Leeds GP and chair of the British Medical Assciation GP committee, says “Of course we need widespread coverage across the country, but it’s incredibly frustrating for practices who have had such a high success rate so far, with lists of patients waiting, to have no certainty around future supplies – and even had planned supplies reduced – especially when they see mass vaccination centres being rolled out.”
I am one of those patients who must be more patient because of that reduction in planned supplies. Some reports claim that deliveries have been as much as halved.
The Prime Minister and his Health Secretary Matt Hancock never stop praising old people, especially Northerners, for our forbearance during this dreadful pandemic.
And this is how they repay us. Thank you, patronising, incompetent Tory gits.
