Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will allow individuals with a history of anaphylaxis to receive Novavax Covid-19 booster vaccinations.

Novavax was not purchased for the Autumn 2024 COVID-19 vaccination programme, as sufficient pre-procured COVID-19 doses of the Moderna mRNA (Spikevax) and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA (Comirnaty) vaccines were available.

The COVID-19 chapter of the publication Immunisation against infectious diseases, also known as the Green Book, details that there are very few individuals who cannot receive the COVID-19 vaccines approved in the United Kingdom. The Green Book Chapter 14a is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-the-green-book-chapter-14a

Published advice recommends that anyone with a prior allergic reaction to COVID-19 vaccines should be seen by an expert allergist and, after a review of the individual’s risks and benefits of vaccination, where vaccination is indicated, they could then be vaccinated in hospital under clinical supervision. NHS England will continue to follow this clinical guidance and offer mRNA vaccination under expert supervision in a hospital setting. This advice is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/COVID-19-vaccine/