Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of changes to the criteria for covid-19 booster vaccinations on people with asthma.

On 14 September 2021, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation advised that individuals who were vaccinated in phase one of the COVID-19 vaccination programme should be offered a booster vaccine. This includes those in the chronic respiratory disease (CRD) clinical risk group. In phase one, those with asthma needing continuous or repeated use of systemic steroids or required hospital admission were included in the CRD risk group.

On 16 September, the Green Book definition of asthma was updated to state that those with ‘poorly controlled asthma’ would be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose. This includes individuals who have had two or more courses of oral corticosteroids in the preceding 24 months; or are on maintenance oral corticosteroids; or have had one or more hospital admission(s) for asthma in the preceding 24 months. A specific assessment of the impact of the revised definition of poorly controlled asthma has not been made.