An online calculator that told users their “place” in the queue for coronavirus vaccines has been updated to include when the country could gain “herd immunity”.
The Vaccine Queue Calculator for Scotland has proven popular with people in Scotland keen on working out roughly when they can expect their first inoculation against Covid-19.
The recent updates to the Omni Calculator allow for a narrowing of the dates one can expect the jag.
It also takes into account flow of vaccine into the country and supply, especially when various developers experience a delay in production or distribution.
Queue calculation
In January, when the vaccine had only just started being administered, a 32-year-old male journalist, with no underlying health conditions and on none of the priority lists, and who is also not a carer, had at least 2,401,655 people ahead of them in the queue.
Now, that same journalist (who may indeed be the author of this article) only has between 316,152 and 642,490 people ahead of them in the queue, and should expect a jag date by early June.
Click here to see where you place.
Data updated
Developer Steve Wooding, who is a member of the Institute of Physics, wanted the calculator to encourage people to continue following science and data rather than “intuition”.
He said the calculation on when herd immunity could be achieved remained a “conservative” one.
“One of the biggest updates I’ve made to the Scottish Vaccine Queue Calculator is the herd immunity date.
“Before, I used ‘vaccination time’, which is the total time from the rollout that we needed in order to vaccinate 70% of our population.
“By showing the date as a result, it’s now easier for people to calculate when we could reach herd immunity.
“I based that on 70% of adults who have had their second dose, plus three weeks to achieve maximum immunity so it is a very conservative herd immunity date prediction.
“I’ve also received many messages from users, asking me if I take into account the slowdown of supplies.
“As of March 29, the calculations consider the proportion of first doses to second doses administered in the last week. This will help account for the expected slowdown in the rate of first doses being administered in April.
“The lack of supplies have also affected the herd immunity date in some areas.
“My daily tweets show how these events not only change our personal vaccine schedules but our country’s progress toward herd immunity as well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we pick up the pace soon, once our imports arrive.”