Flu jabs not stopped but covid boosters are

[CristinaNov182]

Anyone can have repeated flu jabs, new year / new flu jab. Older people for free, younger pay.

We’re just out of a pandemic but the safe and effective booster jabs won’t be offered to anyone apart the very vulnerable. You won’t be able to ask and pay for it.

Changes to coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine booster doses
After 12 February 2023 you will not be able to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose.

Some people who are at increased risk, for example because of age or certain medical conditions, may be offered a seasonal booster later this year. If you are eligible for this, the NHS will contact you when it’s your turn to get vaccinated.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/find-a-walk-in-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-site/

I wonder why? Is it becoming harder to cover up and explain away the surplus deaths? Or is it that no one cares about their grandma anymore? No one wants to protect grandma anymore? How do you square this decision?

Just the opposite, @CristinaNov182. As you note, the vulnerable can still get a booster. This is due to the high levels of circulating Covid in the community already. The JCVI statement below explains it well. I've copied a paragraph from the statement re: underlying conditions and the reasoning being their still receiving boosters.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-programme-for-2023-jcvi-interim-advice-8-november-2022/jcvi-statement-on-the-covid-19-vaccination-programme-for-2023-8-november-2022

"In contrast, some highly vulnerable individuals may develop severe COVID-19 despite being vaccinated; these individuals often have underlying health conditions that confer high susceptibility to severe disease from other infections as well. In the UK, during the Omicron era (up to week 43, 2022), the highest rates of hospitalisations were consistently observed in persons aged 75 years and over, while rates of infection (non-severe illness) were high across all ages and especially among younger persons (references 6 and 7)."

Yes, my question and my point was why is not made available for everyone else as well, private / over payment. Like we have the arrangement for the flu jab. That’s the question.

anyway I’ve opened another thread and replied there a lot

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4744556-to-be-concerned-booster-jabs-stopped-but-not-flu-jabs?page=1

there don’t seem to be any good arguments as to why to treat the boosters differently from the jab flu, why are we not implementing the same, free for the vulnerable, paid for the rest.

probably because the benefit for healthy people from having the booster is around 70 days protection whereas the conferred benefit for healthy people from catching a "top up" infection is around 180 days (as from Sir John Bells evidence to the parliamentary committee on booster provision) ...ergo, vulnerable people are more protected from having the booster themselves but not necessarily by the wider population having the booster jab as there will then be more virus circulating.

Hi. Does anybody know if the booster is possible to get, and how? I am travelling to Japan in May but have not had my third shot. Wondering if there is a chance I could have it - it is a requirement in Japan

Flu jabs are offered between Oct/Nov and Feb/March. I'm not sure when the cut off date is this season, but it must be soon.

Covid jabs are now only available for those where there is medical need. When the deadline comes, flu jabs will cease for everyone

This won't help you get one, but it's not a requirement to enter Japan, you can take a PCR test in advance of travel instead.

www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/japan/entry-requirements

There was an interview with an NHS doctor on the radio a week or two ago about the end of the current covid jabs. She said that they needed a "break" between the last round of jabs and the next round, which I think starts in a couple of months or so. She was saying they'd deliberately created a "break" between courses to avoid confusion and to stop people getting more doses (she gave an example of a forgetful older person who may end up getting too many jabs in too short a time period). I thought it was strange as I thought the NHS had records of who's had each jab, when they had it, etc., so perhaps their database got a glitch. Strange that they didn't have such "breaks" between earlier rounds of jabs where one just ran into the next.

I personally think it’s crazy too. I’ve had long covid since 2020 I’m not considered vulnerable and I don’t want to catch it again without being vaccinated 😞