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The interim advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is that any potential COVID-19 booster programme should be offered in 2 stages from September, starting with those most at risk from serious disease.
Dr David Elliman, Consultant in Community Child Health, said:
“JCVI stresses that this is interim advice and that it could change substantially before September. The advice seems very sensible IF we are going to offer boosters to all adults. However, that begs the question as to whether they are needed and, if so, should they be given. At the moment there is little clinical or laboratory evidence that boosters are needed and JCVI has understandably not committed itself yet. If a booster is needed, exactly how much benefit would it give and would it justify the resources?
“However, there is an equally, if not more, important issue. When, in large parts of the world, there is not enough vaccine to give ONE dose to the adult population, is it right that we should be using up vaccine in this way? Can we, in all conscience, justify this. There are some people who are at particular risk, where the addition of a booster may make a substantial difference, particularly those who have major problems with their immune system and some occupations. In those cases, it would be entirely justified. But for all adults, at the expense of others for whom there would be much greater benefit?”
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/jcvi-issues-interim-advice-on-covid-19-booster-vaccination
All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:
www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19
Declared interests
Dr David Elliman: “I have no conflicts of interest”