How do you feel about the prospect of annual boosters?

[Bonifacethethird]

Just curious really. I know that the flu vaccine is given annually, but when news of the vaccines came out, I think a lot of people would've been imagining it to be a one (well one two dose program) and you're done type of vaccine?

Topical because Chris Hopson (boss of NHS Providers) was on TalkRadio yesterday saying annual boosters will likely be needed for the next five to ten years:

mobile.twitter.com/talkRADIO/status/1406887551634444288

There are however studies ongoing about the heterologous use of the current vaccines, so he isn't actually wrong on that one.

Chris Van Tulleken (when not being a telly doctor) has been working on this (published in The Lancet) as well as many others who are not household names. It's an established strategy in other diseases

heterologous

As in mixing vaccines?

Yes

It's promising

www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23173-1

I don't get the flu jab yet and doubt I will so probably won't have it

Quite happy, just hope I can get one locally as with the vaccine.

Finding it surprising that people are saying they don't have a flu vaccine so won't have a Covid booster. Surely if lots of people dont have the booster we'll be in a situation where we may need a lockdown again? I think it's very important that we all get the boosters, personally.

Fine. I assumed it would be.

@ComtesseDeSpair Would your perspective be different about going somewhere to get it if certain freedoms were only available to those up to date with their boosters?

Yep, i'll be having it when it's offered.
I also have a flu jab every year even though it's far less effective at preventing flu. So does DH and he was very ill in March 2020 and we thought it must be Covid. No, he had a test and it was 'seasonal flu'.
We're not taking any chances and hope to have both jabs this autumn.

Fine with it

[quote Nootkah]@ComtesseDeSpair Would your perspective be different about going somewhere to get it if certain freedoms were only available to those up to date with their boosters?[/quote]
Yes. It’s the only real reason I’ll be vaccinated this time. It’s been a hassle to arrange and have to find somewhere local enough, so I’d need an incentive to go through with it every year - and I’m not convinced thats a viable long-term option, for various reasons.

I'll be first in the queue.

It took me a month to feel normal again after my first vaccine. I'm not looking forward to the second. I'm
not sure I could have one every year if they make me so ill

I would definitely have one if offered and would pay for one if not.
At 49, working in a school, having a teenage DS in another school and a couple of comorbidities, but not enough to have been prioritised, I feel I would be vulnerable to the virus without a booster.
If it could be combined with the flu jab, all the better. I paid for one this Autumn and was glad for the reassurance.

There is now a Delta+ variant doing the rounds in India now, far more transmissible.

Vaccines will need to be redesigned to catch all possible variants, it is simply not possible or even desirable to be giving billions of people vaccinations every few weeks.

I don't really now why the logistics of giving boosters is passing people by.

How I ‘feel’ about boosters is not a relevant consideration. If they are deemed by expert scientists to be necessary to give protection or control transmission, I will be vaccinated.

@AgeLikeWine

How I ‘feel’ about boosters is not a relevant consideration. If they are deemed by expert scientists to be necessary to give protection or control transmission, I will be vaccinated.

This

@AgeLikeWine

How I ‘feel’ about boosters is not a relevant consideration. If they are deemed by expert scientists to be necessary to give protection or control transmission, I will be vaccinated.

Yep-exactly this.

If it's becoming so very much more transmissible will we not all catch it before we can administer a booster?
And therefore they will prioritize older, iller people as with the flu?

I assume it won’t be for everyone, just the over 50s or so.

I was reading today about why the roll out is slowing down, despite decent demand from young people. The idea is that older people tend to have correct GP records and don’t move house that often so it’s easy for the NHS to send vaccines to the right areas and predict demand. Younger people move around a lot more and may have incorrect GP registrations - eg they may be registered at their parent’s house or where they were at university. I know myself a lot of my friends only bothered moving their GP to their correct address when they were pregnant, generally their GP was a few hundred miles away until then. Anyway, the point is that it’s a lot harder to centrally figure out which areas need what and that’s why they’re doing more stadium mass vaccination events that don’t need booking.

Having to repeat this every year would be a logistical nightmare. Sure the idea of the booster is that it’s first doses only but still.. it’s taken us 6 months to open first doses to all adults and probably 7 months before everyone who wants to be is vaccinated. If this were to take place every year there wouldn’t be the huge supply of volunteers or general clinical staff working on the vaccine roll out either. Hard to imagine football and rugby stadiums and the national history museum and all these places opening their doors as a vaccination hub for half the year every year.
Over 50s who are done at the GP or at a pharmacy when they receive flu jabs.

I read a few months ago that one vaccine company was looking to combine flu and covid vaccines in one shot.

I'm fine with having a covid booster, I have the flu vac every year so don't see this as any different really. Ideally it would be good if the 2 could be combined but not sure how likely that is.

On a practical level I'm not sure if giving boosters to all Is viable every year, given the time it takes to get through all adults, the acquisition of the vaccine and all the associated costs and logistics involved to make it happen. It would be a massive financial burden on an already stretched NHS, the costs would either be recuperated from higher NI and tax contributions or taking funding away from other services, either way can't be good for the community or economy.

If boosters are only given to the same cohort that generally has the flu booster then its not possible for it to be considered as a condition of travel, venue entry or isolation requirements.

I have the flu jab every year , adult DC pay for a flu jab. I'd hope it can be combined or at least get the two done at same time.
I had proper flu 15 years ago, never felt so ill. It's easy to underestimate how bad flu can be. DS had swine flu when he was 16 and was scarily ill with it.
I wonder whether they'll end up doing the same with covid as they do with flu, a vaccine produced each year against the prevailing variants.

Nope I'm not getting covid arm or hives again!!!

Really between 10-30 people die in the UK each year following complications to the flu jab? Never thought about it but I don’t have the flu jab anyway. Still I guess I would be keen to get the Covid booster, hopefully the risks of blood clots will have been eliminated.