Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of prioritising for covid-19 vaccination people who live with those who are clinically extremely vulnerable and who are suffering from blood cancer.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccine/s the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation at a population level. The JCVI has advised that the first priorities for any COVID-19 vaccination programme should be the prevention of COVID-19 mortality and the protection of health and social care staff and systems. Therefore, in line with the recommendations of the JCVI, the vaccine will be initially rolled out to the priority groups.

This includes care home residents and staff, people over 80 years old and health and care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and risk, including those who are clinically extremely vulnerable and those aged 16-64 years old with certain underlying health conditions. Individuals with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment are considered clinically extremely vulnerable and will be eligible for a vaccine. Anyone with a history of haematological malignancy should be offered a vaccination at priority group six.

Consideration has been given to vaccination of household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals. However, at this time there is no data on the size of the effect of COVID-19 vaccines on transmission. Evidence is expected to accrue during the course of the vaccine programme and until that time the JCVI is not in a position to advise vaccination solely on the basis of indirect protection.