Likely for two reasons. When planning vaccine clinics, you have to assume everyone will wait their 15 minutes and plan that into how many appointments you can book. If you only have a waiting room that can properly seat X amount of people for 15 minutes, then you can only book Y amount of appointments. (remember it's not fire capacity anymore since they should be 2 meters apart).

The other thing this allows is drive thru appointments in different areas. Drive thru vaccine clinics have existed before, but it's very difficult to find a place large enough to house a whole bunch of cars for 15 minutes. The same argument as above applies.

This also opens up things like vaccine clinics at train stations where you get the jab waiting for the train, then once your are done you can immediately jump on your train/bus etc.

In in Italy I received 3 shots in total, in three different vaccination units. We have among the highest vaccination rates in Europe so at some points a lot of people showed up. Well... the waiting room never where the problem because you need a room only as large as the peak vaccination rate you can have within 15 minutes. Now: because of anamnesis, check of the documents, and other stuff, it is very hard to vaccine a lot of people in 15 minutes: this means that you need a relatively small room. This is what makes me very skeptical about the NHS analysis.

EDIT: I just asked a friend of mine working at one of such vaccination areas and confirmed my impressions. They never had a problem with the waiting room, but instead a problem with the queue that forms at the initial stage, because the vaccination itself does not go very fast, due to the checks needed to make sure you can receive the shot, is the correct one, and so forth.

> In Italy the 15 wait is done in an additional room where people are just "asked" to stay at the end of the process.

Same as the UK until this change.

> I can't see how a wait at the end of the process could reduce throughput by 23%.

Because there are vaccination centres where the capacity of the waiting room at the end is the limiting factor.

> This looks like the next UK mismanagement of the pandemic.

There we are, the rest of your argument was just pretext for some racism.

Well, given I share the same "race" of most UK people (I'm a while Italian), I guess it's not racism. Just the UK government didn't handle it very well in my opinion. For instance now they want a new lockdown after months where everything was possible without any care. And this is just the last data point. Removing the wait is another instance of a not very focused mindset in dealing with the pandemic. That the final stage of waiting slows down you 23% is very unlikely under a bit less rigid parameters. You can say: sit if there are sits, otherwise if you can wait staying on your feet, and as 3rd option wait in your car in the vicinity. To remove the wait looks like nonsense: an illusion of pragmatism. Now, since many other things the UK government did looked like nonsense, including the first idea of going for herd immunity, you have to admit that another nonsense is not completely improbable.

I'm not sure where you're getting your information about what and how the UK is dealing with the pandemic, but I suggest you change your sources. Especially as the UK has fewer deaths per 1000 than Italy, while having greater population density and being an international travel hub.

> For instance now they want a new lockdown

Do they? There's plenty of outside advisors suggesting a lockdown would bring down cases, it's the government themselves who are resisting this.

> including the first idea of going for herd immunity

Source? Stop reading nonsense. We had multiple lockdowns, and then we had extremely rapid vaccine rollout. None of that points to aiming for herd immunity through infections.

> That the final stage of waiting slows down you 23% is very unlikely under a bit less rigid parameters.

You should tell them this, I'm sure the NHS and UKHSA would love to see what data you have that they don't.

> 65 yo population in Italy is 22.8 vs UK 18.4. Most people dying are the old ones so you'll see more death in countries with older population, in general. Moreover the way we count covid victims in Italy is to count every death even when the covid was a minor co-factor. For instance an 80 yo with several chronic disease and cancer dies and is positive to covid as well? It is counted as covid death here, inflating the stats.

About the other statements, if you think UK did a good job with covid, well, I'm happy you trust your government actions. Live long and prosper btw.

> There we are, the rest of your argument was just pretext for some racism.

It isn't racist to criticize the actions of governments.

Discounting something simply because of the country it came from is, in my book.

That is just a way to deflect any criticism of your government.

I don't go running around claiming that any foreign criticism of the Trump or Biden administrations is racist against Americans, that would be absurd.

If the additional room has N seats you can vaccinate at most N people per 15 minutes. Many vaccination venues are small and the size of these rooms could easily be the limiting factor compared to the throughput potentially achievable by a couple of staff giving the actual injections.

When I had mine there were maybe 8 seats, which were full, and they were calling the next patient as seats became free.

In Belgium, the first jab in June I was waiting in a tent in tent with others, tent was mostly opened. Second jab in July I was waiting in a closed store space, sitting on a chair, within 1.5 meters of each other.

I will most likely get the third jab in mid-january according to schedule so I am pretty sure I'll be standing outside for a bit (if I can) this time :).

In the UK, and my experience was similar. I did my 15 minute wait sitting in my car, and it was only recommended because I was driving. When my wife did hers, I drove her, so we didn't bother waiting around (and no one asked us to). I really don't know where this is coming from.

I think experience will differ a lot based on when you were vaccinated. Earlier on (Feb/March last year) it sounds like the waiting time wasn't being strictly enforced - you were advised to wait especially if you were driving but there wasn't really any administration of it. That was the experience my parents had and I heard similar from other people vaccinated at that time.

I got vaccinated in the summer at one of the larger vaccination centres and they were being more strict about it. After getting vaccinated they gave you a card with a time written on it which was when you were supposed to leave (although both times it was only 10 mins not 15). There was a dedicated 'room' with chairs in it and a clock and a nurse watching over things. After your time was up you left the card on the chair. Nobody was physically forcing you to stay but there was an obvious expectation that you would and I didn't see anybody walk straight out either time (out of a sample of 60+ people that I overlapped with).

My experience was as described in both May and July. If anything, I think they said less about it on the second dose. It might vary depending on location . . .