Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 26 April 2021 to Question 181447 on Coronavirus: Vaccination, for what reason The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline and Bloom et al were not used by the JCVI in determining the vaccination priority list.

The definitions used by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) were based on evidence of the risk from COVID-19 disease as set out by OpenSAFELY and QCOVID.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline on severe asthma was based on European Respiratory Society and American Thoracic Society definitions of severe asthma, which are not related to the risk of hospitalisation associated with COVID-19 disease. Similarly, the Bloom et al definition is not based on COVID-19 disease risk. Therefore, these definitions were not used. The JCVI has advised that all adults should be offered COVID-19 vaccination, unless it is contraindicated.