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 risk of waning covid-19 vaccine immunity posed to people who were vaccinated early to prevent the wastage of doses and who are too young to receive a booster vaccine under the current criteria.

The United Kingdom Health Security Agency observed limited waning in vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation and death more than 20 weeks post-vaccination with Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca) or Comirnaty (Pfizer). This was less evident in younger adults not in a clinical risk group, suggesting that if such individuals were vaccinated early, they should still be protected for longer than older individuals.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation advised that booster vaccines should be offered to those more at risk from serious disease and who were vaccinated during phase one of the programme in priority groups one to nine. Younger, healthy individuals may be expected to generate stronger vaccine-induced immune responses from primary course vaccination compared to older individuals.