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 people with ME and chronic fatigue syndrome for covid-19 vaccination.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has not identified any robust data to indicate that, as a group, persons with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome are at higher risk of mortality from COVID-19 and therefore are not included as a group for prioritisation for vaccination in the vaccine programme.

Prioritisation for phase two has not yet been decided, but interim advice has been published by the JVCI recommending an age-based approach which the Government has accepted in principle. Phase two of the COVID-19 vaccine programme will cover all adults under 50 not already included in Phase one.