Coronavirus: Vaccination
(asked on 30th June 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the medical needs of recipients of solid organ donations within the covid 19 booster programme; what priority will be given to such recipients in that booster programme; and when the Cov-Boost study, led by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust will be published; and what the planned timescale is for the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations to publish its decision on the plans for that booster programme.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) published interim advice on a potential COVID-19 booster vaccination programme on 30 June 2021, which is available at the following link:
As stated in the interim advice, adults who are severely immunosuppressed, such as those who have had solid organ transplants, may not respond as well to COVID-19 vaccines. The advice states that those adults who are severely immunosuppressed should be offered COVID-19 booster revaccination at the start of the booster programme. It should be noted that this advice may be subject to change before being finalised.
Final decisions on the timing and scope of the vaccine booster programme will be made later in the year, informed by further independent advice from the JCVI. The JCVI will review the emerging scientific evidence to inform the Government in our final decision-making process, which includes further data on the durability of protection from vaccines, data supplied by manufacturers and clinical trial data from the Cov-Boost trial on immune responses following a third vaccination. It is anticipated that primary data from the initial stages of this trial will be reported to the JCVI by the end of summer 2021.