The NHS does not have sufficient flu vaccine stocks to fulfil the government’s pledge to offer free jabs to 30 million people in England this winter, officials have admitted.
But according to The Times, officials say the government has only bought enough flu jabs to vaccinate 75% of those eligible and “would have to try to buy extra stock if more came forward”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In a letter sent to GPs and other NHS staff this week outlining plans to set up drive-through flu jab centres, England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said that healthy people aged between 50 and 64 would be vaccinated “subject to supply”.
The admission has triggered alarm in the health service, “with family doctors demanding to know who should have priority if stocks run low”, the newspaper reports.
Martin Marshall, head of the Royal College of GPs, said that doctors “need clear guidance who, outside of those patients most at risk, should be prioritised for a flu jab - and there needs to be clear public messaging that this is the case to manage patients’ expectations”.
The shortages admission comes amid reports that the Department of Health and Social Care has talked about using flu vaccines that have yet to be licensed in order to top up the country’s stocks.
According to GP news site Pulse, records from a meeting of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation say that officials “considered products that were not currently licensed in the UK, but which may be gaining a licence in time for the 2020-21” season.
-
Should you add your child to your credit card?The Explainer You can make them an authorized user on your account in order to help them build credit
-
Cracker Barrel crackup: How the culture wars are upending corporate brandingIn the Spotlight Is it 'woke' to leave nostalgia behind?
-
'It's hard to discern what it actually means'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Neanderthal gene ‘caused up to a million Covid deaths’Speed Read Genetic tweak found in one in six Britons means cells in the lungs are slower to launch defences
-
Legalising assisted dying: a complex, fraught and ‘necessary’ debateSpeed Read The Assisted Dying Bill – which would allow doctors to assist in the deaths of terminally ill patients – has relevance for ‘millions’
-
Vaccinating children: it’s decision time for the health secretary as kids return to schoolSpeed Read Sajid Javid readying NHS England to roll out jab for children over 12, amid fears infections will rocket
-
‘Vaccination blunts, but does not defeat’: exploring Israel’s fourth Covid waveSpeed Read Two months ago, face masks were consigned to bins. Now the country is in a ‘unique moment of epidemiological doubt’
-
Thousands told to self-isolate in Covid app pinging error, claims Whitehall whistleblowerSpeed Read Source says Matt Hancock was privately told of the issue shortly before he resigned as health secretary
-
Record 5.45m people on NHS England waiting listsSpeed Read Health chief warns that crisis is nearing ‘boiling point’ as backlog grows
-
Covid testing: the ‘great new game of holiday roulette’Speed Read On one day last week, the price of a private PCR test ranged from £23.99 to £575
-
San Marino is first European country to offer ‘vaccine vacation’Speed Read Tiny landlocked nation to give Russian Sputnik vaccine to paying tourists
