A 32-year-old man with no underlying health conditions was offered a Covid vaccine early because of a blunder at his GP surgery which recorded him as being 6.2cm tall, giving him an astonishing body mass index (BMI) of 28,000.
The Liverpool Echo’s political editor, Liam Thorp, said he was left “really confused” after he was offered the jab this week seemingly ahead of the government’s rollout plan, and shared the “frankly surreal” experience in a Twitter thread which quickly went viral.
Manchester Evening News politics and investigations editor, Jennifer Williams, replied: “Should they not have been in touch before to see how the man the size of a thumb was getting on?” And palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke said: “This, for me, is the single best tweet of the entire pandemic, Liam. And may I please commend your decency in not exploiting your remarkable BMI to jump the queue?”
Quick GuideVaccines: how effective is each one?
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Pfizer/BioNTech
Country US/Germany
Efficacy 95% a week after the second shot. Pfizer says it is only 52% after the first dose but the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) says this may rise to 90% after 21 days.
Doses Clinical trials involved two doses 21 days apart. The UK is stretching this to 12 weeks.
Oxford/AstraZeneca
Country UK
Efficacy 70.4% 14 days after receiving the second dose. May have up to 90% efficacy when given as a half dose followed by a full dose. No severe disease or hospitalisations in anyone who received the vaccine.
There have been concerns it is less effective against the South African variant of the coronavirus, and that a rare type of blood clot can be a side effect.
Doses Two, four to 12 weeks apart
Moderna
Country US
Efficacy Phase 3 trial results suggest 94.1%.
Doses Two, 28 days apart
Novavax
Country US
Efficacy Phase 3 trials suggest 89.3%.
Doses Two
Janssen (part of Johnson & Johnson)
Country US
Efficacy 72% in preventing mild to moderate cases in US trials but 66% efficacy observed in international trials. 85% efficacy against severe illness, and 100% protection against hospitalisation and death.
Doses: One, making it unique among Covid vaccines with phase 3 results so far
Sinovac
Country China
Efficacy Unclear. Researchers in Brazil have found the efficacy of the Chinese vaccine to be as low as 50.4%, whereas Turkish officials reported interim data from trials showing efficacy was 91%.
After his initial surprise at the invitation, Thorp said he was under the impression you should accept an invitation and book an appointment but later felt “uneasy” about the situation, especially with so many vulnerable people yet to be vaccinated.
Under-50s with no underlying health conditions are the final group on the government’s priority list and are not expected to be offered the vaccine until the summer.
So I’m not getting a vaccine next week - was feeling weird about why I’d been selected ahead of others so rang GP to check. Turns out they had my height as 6.2cm rather than 6 ft 2, giving me a BMI of 28,000 😂
— Liam Thorp 💙 (@LiamThorpECHO) February 17, 2021
After ringing his GP to ask if there had been a mistake, Thorp was told he had been placed in priority group six because of his weight. Writing in the Echo, he said that despite being “on the chunky side, I wouldn’t have thought of myself as clinically obese (even after lockdown)”.
After “some serious soul-searching” and a revision of Pancake Day plans, Thorp was called back by the surgery the next day. “What followed was one of the most bizarre phone conversations of my life,” he wrote.
It transpired that his details had been put into the system incorrectly, with his height recorded as 6.2cm rather than 6ft 2ins (188cm). Combined with his weight, this had given Thorp a BMI of 28,000 – roughly 1,000 times higher than the UK average – which would have made him morbidly obese. “I’m not sure how he kept it together when he told me this,” he wrote.
“If I had been less stunned, I would have asked why no one was more concerned that a man of these remarkable dimensions was slithering around south Liverpool. But he was very apologetic and really nice and I think he was just relieved that I found it so funny.”
Thorp also shared a hilarious interaction with his mother after he shared the mishap on Twitter. “When I told my mum I had been classed in the clinically obese category, she said: ‘Well perhaps this is the wake-up call you need’.”
Thorp said the mix-up showed how important it was for people to check if they feel they may have been invited for the jab by mistake.
The NHS Liverpool clinical commissioning group said it was “grateful” to Thorp for checking with his GP. Its chair, Dr Fiona Lemmens, said: “I can see the funny side of this story but also recognise there is an important issue for us to address.”