Autumn/winter covid vaccine

[LibbyR79]

Anyone nervous about the fact they're not getting the vaccine this year? This is the 1st year I've not been eligible. This time it's only for immunosuppressed and 75plus. I've recently had covid and it was quite bad, though not awful. I've not had great reactions to the vaccines too. Just felt awful and 40 degree temperature.
Hopefully will be fine with vaccines on board etc. Just feel I'm entering into the unknown. My husband has health issues too and its a bit unclear as to whether he'll be eligible.
Anyway, hope everyone is ok and just wondered your thoughts x

Same here - unsure why, as I’m
still eligible for the flu vaccine, which has never hit me as hard as Covid did 😢

Me too with flu vaccine. I think we were catagorised as the group below the most urgent. Fingers cirossed we've had enough to be ok if we get it again. Hopefully not a silly decision 🤞 x

I believe you can still pay to have the Covid jab privately at a pharmacist. It’s certainly not cheap though.

It’s really frustrating how tight eligibility has been all the way through and so out of step with other countries. We don’t even have novovax here (England). I think it says alot when there’s even a wider vaccine offer under someone like RFK in the states! Hope you’re all ok.

I'm still eligible (I'm on methotrexate for RA) but this is the first time those in my household are not. Up until now they've been eligible by dint of living with me. Especially concerning as DD is a teacher and comes into contact with every bug going. I'm eligible for antivirals if I do catch it but I'd rather not - the AVs are pretty brutal themselves.

All seems rather short sighted to me.

I’m not eligible this year either, which is worrying me a little. The first time I got Covid (after having had the vaccine) I was incredibly ill, I genuinely thought I was going to end up in hospital and might die at one point. I’ve had it a second time and that was nowhere near as bad luckily. But with no vaccine and a worse strain this year, I’m nervous about how bad it COULD be. Sadly I don’t have the spare money to pay privately.

I’m in the US where despite all the vaccine controversy, the covid jab is still available in the vast majority of states as it saves the health insurance companies money- presumably it would save the NHS money in the long-run too.

DF in the UK can’t get it as he is too young (in his 70s) but does anyone know if you can request it privately and how much that would cost?

Dh is NHS staff and he's not eligible this year either, he will just have the flu vaccine.

@BeekmanBoots are advertising it, but I haven’t looked at it any further.

https://www.boots.com/online/pharmacy-services/covid-19-vaccination-service?srsltid=AfmBOopPkZUpo07oCR4gO-frqNzeP8C4UXIfAkzvu8wUhEYuMrJgT7qm

Thanks very much. It’s $200 to get it done without insurance here so hopefully cheaper in the UK.

Yeah iv had covid twice and ended up hospitalised both times and left with long term health complications so it makes me nervous I also work with the general public so am always having people coughing all over me

I’m in the same boat. I’m considering paying for a vaccination. I’ve checked and they are available at my local pharmacy. I don’t know how expensive they are though.

£98.95 in boots

I think it is a financial decision rather than health/safety-related. As PP says, in the US they are free of charge with the medical insurance employees get. It's the best part of £100 quid where I've inquired (75-95, seems to vary depending on factors I don't fully understand). Best to get it privately if you are concerned about not getting it from the NHS because it has been scientifically proven to offer little effect within less than a year. Plus the advantage of a booster is that the vaccine is updated for the latest strains - on which note, check which version you will get when paying privately, they don't always give you the latest version since they have pre-bought stock rather than had it provided by the NHS.

In the UK the JCVI say this:

"For the development of advice relating to COVID-19 vaccination from autumn 2025, JCVI has resumed the use of a standard cost-effectiveness assessment, in line with other routine vaccinations in the national immunisation programme and the JCVI code of practice. The advice is based on modelling of the impact and cost-effectiveness of vaccination where clinical outcomes are stratified by age, high-risk clinical disease groups and patients with immunosuppression."

"The use of cost-effectiveness is a key pillar in the consideration of immunisation programmes, ensuring that the substantial investments in the programmes are a good use of public money, and that those funds would not be better spent on other healthcare interventions. This has led to a more refined approach to the targeting of the COVID-19 immunisation programme, with a focus on individuals where there is good evidence of a high risk of hospitalisation and/or mortality."

As I understand it, the costs of covid they take into account, as well as mortality, are limited to immediate NHS/social care ones only like the costs of hospitalisation. That's why we're getting a reduced programme this year.

The costs to individuals or to society of workers needing lots of time off work or of people leaving the workforce due to long covid, heart attacks, strokes and so on (higher risks after covid) aren't in there at all as far as I can see. Possibly it's just too hard to model.

In any case, in no sense is their decision a sign that the JCVI think the rest of us wouldn't benefit from the vaccine - it's just that they think short-term cost savings to the NHS by us having it won't be enough to outweigh the price, so the NHS won't be paying for it.

All the way through it’s not been deemed cost effective by JCVI, who would spend a grand to save a fiver, whilst vaccinations to a much wider pool have been deemed cost effective for any other comparable country.

Both my children used to be eligible due to autism and me and dp as carers but we are not eligible now either.

We just paid for our oldest ds to have it privately last week (you have to be 12 to get it so the younger dc can’t have it), me and dp. We paid about £95 each so not cheap, but we are doing it to protect ds who gets really unwell when he gets Covid.