Details of the autumn booster programme for the most vulnerable to get a Covid booster has been announced. The roll-out will begin at the start of September 2022.
In Wales, a single dose of Covid-19 vaccines will be offered to:
- Residents in a care home for older adults and staff working in care homes for older adults
- Frontline health and social care workers
- All adults aged 50 years and over
- People aged five to 49 years in a clinical risk group
- People aged five to 49 years who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression
- People aged 16-49 who are carers
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You can read all about the booster scheme in Wales here.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has said that eligible adults who are aged 18+ will initially be offered the Moderna vaccine which protects from both the original Covid virus and the Omicron variant - a bivalent vaccine. Those eligible aged under 18 will be offered the Pfizer vaccine. Both vaccines will be offered at least three months after a previous dose.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Darius Hughes from Moderna, said the company can supply 29m doses this year. Also speaking was the JCVI's deputy chair Prof Anthony Hamden. Here's what we learnt:
How much does it protect against infection, not just serious illness?
Mr Hughes said that the vaccine are produced after clinical trials and they measure levels of antibodies. Their vaccine has a higher level of antibodies for both the original strain but also Omicron strains than the original. What they don't have yet is real world evidence, or data, from it being put into people. They can't measure the level of infection yet because to do that they would have to infect people, which doesn't happen in clinical trials.
He said the new vaccine is coded especially for the Omicron variant. "We're very confident that the new vaccine has as much protection as the old Moderna vaccine plus added new protection against Omicron. If we look at the evidence of the millions of doses that have been used so far, and the level of protection they have given against the original Wuhan strain then we're very confident that this new bivalent original and Omicron will offer good protection.
How many doses do I need?
The Moderna vaccine is a single dose.
How long will the protection last?
Mr Hughes said that the length or level of protection is also not yet known in terms of the new vaccine. "It's really hard to recall this has only been going on for a couple of years, the whole pandemic, and we don't have a great deal of evidence on vaccinations it is being collected at the moment.
"What we do know is that our original strain vaccine and another bivalent vaccine which was a Wuhan and Beta vaccine have shown protection beyond six months. But if you use that as a correlate, we're confident our new bivalent vaccine the original and Omicron should be able to show that level of protection as well."
Prof Hamden said there were still lots of unknowns but "we really don't know how long they'll last for or when the next wave will be".
He said the vulnerable and at risk groups should be vaccinated as early as possible to give them protection. The JCVI will monitor the decision throughout the winter. "The vaccination is much more important than the type of vaccination we believe," he said.
Asked if everyone in the UK should get the Moderna joint vaccine, Prof Hamden said people were getting Omicron despite having had a vaccination but the current target was to target those most at risk.
What vaccines are being offered?
Pfizer and Moderna. Moderna's is a new vaccine which offers protection against both the original variant and Omicron. Pfizer has a so-called bivalent vaccine in the works too. Astra Zeneca isn't going to be used at the moment, Prof Harman said.
"It was, and still is a fantastic vaccine and the population that received AZ got very good protection from it but the way that the taskforce has decided to purchase vaccines means we are using MRNA vaccines".
Prof Harman said he wanted people to be vaccinated with either vaccine and other companies will produce bi or even multi valiant vaccines. "At the moment what we're saying is get vaccinated and don't worry too much about what type of vaccine it is".
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