I was frustrated by the lack of meaningful information in the press / on TV so I turned to the ONS. The report from 18 December may explain the vaccination of the elderly first.

In summary:
90% of all COVID deaths to 18 Dec are in the over 65s
Hospital admission rates highest in over 85s
Secondary school students have the highest infection rates but are rarely hospitalised (although do pass it on - my comment)

Remember the top message throughout COVID has been protect the NHS (and not the economy). I think the government rightly or wrongly want to vaccinate the elderly first because they are the ones ending up in hospital. Although this doesn't explain why they wouldn't also vaccinate NHS workers.

Does your death figure include the skewed effect of deaths not being registered over Christmas?

Figures are from the BBC website Sarah.

Are the over 65s/85s death rates the excess death rates though? More people always die in these age groups.

Given that the vulnerable should absolutely not be out at all, vaccinating domiciliary care workers (who do 9 - 15 visits each per day) must make more sense than vaccinating older people... requiring them to go out (often over 20 miles - needing a bus, taxi or friend, with whom they should not be mixing), queue up in the cold, sit in rooms with others for 15 minutes afterwards... while those who will care for them in hospital should they get ill (of something else) are not being prioritised, or regularly tested (remembering 1 in 3 of those infected have no symptoms). It just does not make sense.

I know of far too many people whose work in health or education has directly given them coronavirus. It is totally unfair to expect them to work unprotected, while people who should not be out anyway are being prioritised for protection.

No snow at the coast. Keeps trying but never settles. Which is fine by me. My parents and grandmother have all had their 2nd booster jabs this week (3 weeks after their first) so I don't know when they are starting the 12 week gap. I put 11lbs on in December so removing it is my late winter challenge. I'm just grateful to have something to do. Stay warm, you two.

We are now getting the vaccines and the Older Adults CMHT have just had theirs and after this weekend I believe three of my colleagues will have had it. Every available slot for CMHT's was filled within half an hour and the rest of us should hear soon when we can have ours.
I and a couple of others have stated a preference for the Astra Zeneca Oxford vaccine because we have allergies. I know of one patient who has asthma who suffered anaphylactic shock from the Pfizer vaccine so there is no way I will have that or the Moderna vaccine.
Keep yourselves safe and enjoy the snow from the cosy side of the windows. No snow here.

I think the "logic" of vaccinating the Olds first is probably that they're the ones most likely to be deeply affected and hospitalised by it, whereas those younger front-line workers are likely to be more resilient and less less likely to be hospitalised/ICU'd

Whether that's a flawed assumption or not, only time will tell.

It is a difficult one but front line workers should definitely be vaccinated as no1 priority alongside the elderly.

Simple logic is that the people most likely to give it to the elderly are front line health workers and a recent quote from a friend was that their school was 'running out of teachers' due to positive tests, presumably from being given it by children.

I agree Mr BW and Lyle. It is a flawed logic but ONS shows that the hospitalisation issue is the old. Personally I also think that frontline workers should be done first.

I saw the death figures were from the BBC BW but the site didn't make clear whether it was deaths registered or occurring on that day. On Saturday I found out the BBC number was for deaths registered. Current daily death rate is in the region of 600 to 700. Still high but not as high as April. This doesn't mean there is not a problem (sorry double negative), it is just that a large proportion of my degree was in statistics and I was taught to understand what data is being used to calculate a statistic.

Still no snow here, just very cold