New Covid variant BA.2.86: does the UK booster programme go far enough?
Some MPs and experts say criteria for jabs is ‘too narrow’ ahead of ‘rocky ride’ this winter

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
A “faster-than-planned” rollout of Covid booster vaccines is underway in England amid controversy over denying the shots to healthy adults under 65.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) began the programme this morning, accelerating its launch over “concerns” about a new Covid variant, said BBC News. There have been 34 confirmed cases of BA.2.86 in England, with 28 of those in one Norfolk care home.
All adults aged 65 and over are eligible, as well as care home residents, frontline health and care workers and those who are clinically at risk, plus their households if aged between 12 and 64. But unlike in 2022, boosters will not be offered to healthy adults aged 50 to 64.
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.
Ministers are facing “urgent calls” to reconsider, said The Guardian. Members of the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus wrote to the prime minister warning that the NHS could struggle to cope with a winter of high case numbers.
‘Most of us have survived an infection’
Denying under-65s Covid jabs is the right call, given that “almost every one of us has survived one, and most of us have already survived multiple, Covid infections”, Paul Hunter, professor of infectious diseases at the University of East Anglia, told The Guardian.
“Other than doing a population-level vaccination programme, I don’t know what the alternative really is,” said Steve Brine, the Conservative chair of health select committee. The government says it is following the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). Brine said he “wouldn’t be making any different decision”.
It’s a different situation to 2020 and 2021, said Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UKHSA, thanks to varying degrees of immunity from vaccines and infections. Many of those infected experience a “mild, asymptomatic illness and don’t even know they have it”, she told Sky News.
‘Rocky ride’ ahead
The government is “being a bit cavalier and thinking this is just going to be fine”, said the all-party parliamentary group chair, Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran.
Some MPs believe the JCVI “looked too narrowly” at the criteria by only considering “hospitalisations and deaths”, Jim Reed, BBC health reporter, told Radio 4’s “Today” programme, and not the “wider impact” such as people with infections missing work or school.
Simon Williams, a public health researcher at Swansea University, agreed that extending the booster to over-50s would be a “sensible precaution”. Lawrence Young, a professor of virology at the University of Warwick, said the UK faced a “rocky ride” this winter.
There is “a real case to be made for widening the criteria for who gets a booster”, Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, told The Independent. “(We should) make it accessible to those who want to have it.”
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Covid testing to be ramped up for winter
Speed Read Scientists fear UK could be ‘flying blind’ on infection rates due to lack of monitoring programmes
By Harriet Marsden Published
-
Why measles is threatening children right across the UK
feature The UK lost its measles-free status in 2019, indicating that the measles virus was circulating and there was inadequate vaccination to prevent its spread
By The Week Staff Published
-
Jonah Hill and the rise of therapy speak
Talking Point Film star’s texts to former girlfriend highlight new desire to apply language of psychotherapy to everyday life
By Sorcha Bradley Published
-
The taming of Malaria
feature Distribution of vaccines a ‘challenge’ and costs ‘considerable’ but rollout still marks landmark moment in history
By Arion McNicoll Published
-
The debate over police and mental health crisis care
Talking Point Commissioner says current approach to crises is “untenable”
By Rebekah Evans Published
-
Wine wars: are health warnings needed on alcohol?
Talking Point Ireland will become the first country in the world to introduce new advisory labels on alcohol
By Felicity Capon Published
-
Lyme disease: vaccine could halt rise of tick-borne disease
feature Experts have issued a warning as cases rise in the UK
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
Sanofi: the new protein-based Covid vaccine to be used in the UK
feature Protein-based vaccines have been safely used for years against hep B, flu and shingles
By The Week Staff Published