Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that people who only wish to have the AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccination as a booster have the ability to do so.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised that those eligible for the COVID-19 booster vaccine should be offered a booster dose of either the Pfizer vaccine or the Moderna vaccine. Where mRNA vaccines cannot be offered, vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine may be considered for those who received AstraZeneca vaccine in the primary course.

There are currently no plans to allow patients to request the type of COVID-19 vaccination they receive. People will be offered the vaccine type most appropriate to them, following the JCVI’s advice and any allergies to particular vaccine ingredients. They will then be directed to a vaccine site with the appropriate vaccine available.