Coronavirus: Vaccination
(asked on 20th February 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the independent report entitled JCVI statement on the COVID-19 vaccination programme for 2023, updated on 27 January 2023, on what evidential basis the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has proposed including children over the age of (a) 12 who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression and (b) 16 who are carers in the targeted primary course covid-19 vaccination programme in 2023, in the context of the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing transmission.
Answered by
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) report does not contain any evidential basis for proposed cohorts, as it was interim advice. The considerations for any future decisions will be part of future JCVI reports and meeting minutes.
Current COVID-19 vaccines may provide some short-term protection against infection and onwards transmission, weekly surveillance reports can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccine-weekly-surveillance-reports
This may reduce the risk of transmission from household contacts to immunosuppressed individuals who are at high risk of complications, and who may not directly benefit from vaccination. It will also reduce the risk of serious disease in carers, which, if they were to fall ill, may compromise the welfare of those they care for.
The advice within the JCVI interim statement of 25 January 2023 is that primary course COVID-19 vaccination should move, over the course of 2023, towards a more targeted offer to protect those persons at higher risk of severe COVID-19. The vaccination programme can be found at the following link:
Since the JCVI interim statement of 25 January 2023, the JCVI published a statement on 7 March 2023, which contained detail of the spring 2023 booster programme which can be found at the following link:
The JCVI advice for the spring 2023 booster programme does not include primary or booster vaccinations for the groups referred to in this question.