It’s time to get real, stop being selfish and have the booster – now

With cases of omicron rising exponentially, all adults over 18 in England are eligible for a top-up jab as of today – so what are you waiting for?

What are you doing today? Let me tell you what you should be doing, if you’ve got any sense at all: getting your booster.

Unless you’ve been intentionally avoiding the news cycle (and after this weekend, I wouldn’t blame you – it was a lot), you couldn’t have failed to notice the urgency of the situation in which we find ourselves. With cases of omicron rising exponentially, all adults over 18 in England are now eligible for a booster jab as of today, with the devolved nations expected to follow.

It couldn’t have come too soon. Scientific and medical experts have now advised the government to raise our national Covid alert level from three to four, saying “the emergence of omicron adds additional and rapidly increasing risk to the public and healthcare services”. And Boris Johnson warned in a special address last night that “there is a tidal wave of omicron coming”.

We are now in a collective race against time as the government attempts to jab more than 1 million people a day by the end of the year – yes, just 18 days.

But while it makes perfect sense to get a booster jab, that doesn’t mean everyone will find it easy. Anecdotal reports already seem to suggest the NHS booking service crashing, as it’s overrun with requests (good news, in a way, as at least it means people are trying). “The booking system has crashed, so not only are there no local centres, it’s impossible to book,” commented one Independent reader. “Too little, too late, pathetic planning.”

Another said they believed that failing to find an appointment would eventually be blamed – unfairly – on the public: “You simply can’t access them, too far away, no appointments available. They will blame the public, when the public want a booster but can’t get it. Typical Tory nonsense and deceit.”

And one reader related the experience many have been sharing on social media: “I personally know people who are really struggling to get appointments. I did too. I got there in the end – by joining a long queue at a walk-in centre, and ignoring the appointment I had booked.”

Still, while there may well be severe logistical issues involved with aiming to vaccinate every single person in the country over the age of 18 by the end of the year, shouldn’t we all be sucking it up and doing what it takes – even if it involves a massive wait online, or in person at a walk-in centre?

Some anecdotal evidence seems to suggest the feared queues aren’t even that bad, with one Independent writer recounting on Twitter yesterday: “Went to get my booster yesterday morning. Got 3 hrs of parking just in case there were crazy queues for the walk-ins, but was done and dusted within 30 mins. Still, £2.20 very well spent.”

If you can get to a walk-in centre, and you’ve had both your jabs (your second needs to have been at least three months ago, according to NHS guidelines), then there’s only one plausible piece of advice: do it.

It could hardly be more vital (or more worth it). Let’s look at what’s at stake: scientists have advised the government that there is a “rapidly increasing risk to the public” from the new variant, with early evidence showing that it is spreading much faster than delta – and that vaccine protection against symptomatic disease from omicron is reduced (having the booster raises your immunity to the virus).

We’ve been told by the prime minister we’re in an “omicron emergency”, and it’s down to all of us to play our part to reduce the strain on the NHS – which is under severe threat of being overrun with cases, if we hit a substantial fourth wave.

One doctor friend of mine told me this week of the horror of having to “step over people” to make her way out of an A&E department – the strain is already so visible. Resus patients are being forced to wait on plastic chairs, she said, with waiting times hitting as much as 17 hours.

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I can’t have my booster for a month, even though I have two primary school-aged kids at home, unvaccinated. Why? Because last week I had Covid – and whichever strain it was, it wasn’t fun. I spent five days in bed and am still coughing with a tight chest, even though I’m well clear of isolation. I dread to think how I might have fared if I hadn’t been vaccinated at all.

And it’s clear, on the ground, just how many people are Covid positive – it feels like every moment we hear of more and more positive cases.

I’ve now got to wait at least 28 days before I’m allowed to get my third dose. But the only thing getting me through Christmas with a little less anxiety is the fact I have that to look forward to on the other side.

I’ve booked mine. Have you booked yours?