What Is The UK’s COVID Vaccine Booster Plan?

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed he will be setting out a plan for the government’s COVID-19 vaccine booster programme within the next few weeks. However, health bosses say that planning needs to start now, as it will be a logistical nightmare for the NHS to run the scheme while it deals with the health challenges brought by the winter months.

The news comes as COVID-19 infections are rising again as the Delta variant becomes the dominant form of the coronavirus in the UK, despite 80 per cent of the population now having received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to Sky News.

Why are booster jabs being considered?

At the time of writing, there have been 75 million doses of the vaccine administered in the UK, with 32 million people having received both jabs, which equates to 48 per cent of the population, according to government data.

Multiple studies have shown that the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTECH vaccines, the two most commonly used vaccines in the UK, offer very strong protection against the coronavirus after receiving both doses.

However, experts are wanting to provide people, in particular, the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions even more protection against the virus with a third ‘booster’ dose.

How is the scheme working?

The Department of Health announced earlier this year that it was launching a study – the world’s first – into the effectiveness of a booster dose, and thousands of volunteers have now received a booster dose in the CoV-Boost study, which is being led by the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, with £19.3 million worth of government funding.

The study will be trialling seven vaccines and will be the first of its kind in the world to provide vital data on the impact of a booster dose on patients’ immune responses.

Researchers want to understand how effective the third dose of a vaccine is, and whether or not mixing the jabs of two different companies has any impact on this outcome.

Anyone eligible for a booster jab will be likely to attend a vaccination site in the same way they got doses one and two.

Why has the scheme not been rolled out yet?

The study will be taking place at 16 National Institute for Health Research-supported sites across England, as well as at Health and Care Research Wales and NHS Research Scotland sites. There will be a total of 2,886 patients and participants getting booster vaccination from early June.

All the participants will be monitored for the duration of the study to check for any side effects, and they will have blood samples taken so that immune responses can be measured on day 28, 84, 308, and 365, and a small number of participants will also have blood tests at other times.

All sites will have an electronic diary for all participants that will send alerts to the team in real-time if needed and a 24-hour emergency phone to a doctor on the study, who can provide further clinical advice.

Although the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is likely to approve the scheme, it will not make a final decision until it has examined all the findings from the study.

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