Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, where on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation priorities for covid-19 vaccines list people suffering with Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency are.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises that for the first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, the priority should be the prevention of COVID-19 mortality and the protection of health and social care staff and systems.

The secondary priorities include vaccination for those at increased risk of hospitalisation and increased risk of exposure.

Evidence suggests that the risk of serious COVID-19 disease is strongly related to age, and the advice has been to immunise individuals according to age and risk from underlying health condition. If a patient is considered to be at very high risk of serious illness from COVID-19 and based on clinical judgement by their general practitioner or hospital clinician, they could be added to the Shielded Patient List identified as clinically extremely vulnerable. This may include those with an alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.