First thing yesterday morning we turned up. I had booked the date the first chance I got, and I took the earliest appointment offered, which was 8.30am.
It was exactly as described on the ticket. It could not have been a smoothernon-event. The booking process is seamless, the contact with you is seamless, the arrival and the checks are all seamless.
You get a sense of the infrastructure required. This singular centre in one part of one town reminds you of the size of the effort to roll this out.
There are a lot of people, a lot of chairs, and a lot of rooms needed. And even first thing Sunday, there were plenty of people already under way.
Mike Hosking booked his jab at the Epsom Vaccination Centre early on Sunday morning. Photo / Facebook
Obviously given there are now over 800,000 fully jabbed I am far from unique. But, if there is to be an issue, it will be demand.
Early on, obviously the Government let us down appallingly by not taking this seriously enough, not doing their job properly, and getting the vaccine here with the urgency it should have.
Now with supply allegedly sorted, demand is the next problem. By opening up on September 1 to everyone, what percentage of the population will roll up? And will not putting targets and incentives in to get jabbed bite them? My guess is yes.
Anyway, into the room, the vaccinator could not have been nicer. A few more questions, and jab done.
If you're needle-phobic, in all honesty it is painless. It's in and it's out. The prick you feel on a blood test is worse, and that's hardly worth mentioning.
You go through, you sit, you wait, they call you up, you're fine, and you're out.
Mike Hosking after getting the Covid-19 jab. Photo / Facebook
It's as non-eventful as it sounds. Every single person you deal with is diligent, pleasant, and you could not fault them, even if you were looking to find fault.
It's like so many things that involve government. The stuff at the top might be headline-grabbing or open to debate, but on the ground, the workers turn up every day and do their duty, there is an army out there all over the country right now doing a fantastic job.
