The Covid-19 booster vaccination programme should be extended to include healthy people aged 40 to 49, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) have announced this morning
The announcement came as people are being urged to get jabbed to save Christmas with the JCVI also recommending that 16 and 17-year-olds get their second Covid jab.
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said that those in over-60s group getting a booster achieve in excess of 90% protection from infection adding that the UK could be in for a “bumpy few months” ahead over Christmas and the winter
Dr June Raine, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said: “We welcome today’s announcement by the JCVI, on the extension of the booster campaign to 40-49 year olds. This further strengthens our ability to ensure people are protected against COVID-19 and saves lives.
“Our safety monitoring to date shows that COVID-19 vaccines continue to have a positive safety profile for the majority of people. The vast majority of reactions which are reported relate to expected side effects such as injection site reactions and flu-like symptoms, as was seen in our initial assessment.
“Our proactive monitoring of the safety of booster doses does not raise any new concerns. “We also welcome the recommendation for 16-17 year-olds to come forward and have a second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
“People can be reassured that when we gave approval for the Pfizer vaccine for those 16 years and over in December 2020, we had thoroughly reviewed all the clinical trial data.”
