Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the concerns expressed by the Alzheimer’s Society on 1 February about the impact of delaying the second dose of COVID-19 vaccination on care home residents.

Both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines provide a high degree of protection after the first dose. The decision to update the dosing interval is based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and is designed to save lives. It was made following a thorough review of the data and was in line with the recommendations of the UK’s four Chief Medical Officers. The JCVI advised that we should prioritise giving as many people in at-risk groups their first dose, rather than providing two doses in as short a time as possible.