Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Lord Kamall Excerpts

Tuesday 25th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

It depends on the type of jab. For instance, the maternal jab can be given to the mother as part of her prenatal check-ups. Either way, if it is for her or for the baby, there will be an education campaign. The other at-risk group is, as I am sure the noble Baroness knows, the over-75s. We are looking at a targeted programme for them as well, which they can go to their GP to find out about.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

Further to the noble Baroness’s question about public information, we found previously when rolling out vaccines, not just for this but for Covid, that there were certain communities which were difficult to reach or to persuade to take up the vaccine. As an extension to the question from the noble Baroness, what more is being done to encourage people in those communities who are reluctant to be vaccinated to come forward, or to go to meet them in their communities and take the vaccine to them?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

We had this question on MMR just the other day. Some groups are much harder to reach than others. Very young children are the prime at-risk group. There, it is much easier because, naturally, they are seen by their GP and medical staff either prenatally, if it is maternal, or post in terms of the baby check-ups. The group that we are talking more about here is post 75 year-olds, and there those education programmes will be put in place.