The Cov-Boost study, led by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, was backed by £19.3m of government funding. Thousands of volunteers received a Covid vaccine booster over the summer in a trial that tested seven different vaccines for the impact of a third dose on immune responses.
Is was this research which informed the JCVI’s guidance on booster jabs and the autumn booster programme.
Which vaccines will be used?
The JCVI advises a preference for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the booster programme, regardless of which vaccine brand someone received for their first and second doses. This follows data from the Cov-Boost trial that indicates the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is well tolerated as a third dose and provides a strong booster response.
Alternatively, the Moderna vaccine may be offered, but as a half-dose booster shot after studies showed it was effective with few side-effects.
Where either of these two mRNA vaccines cannot be offered, for example due to allergies, the AstraZeneca vaccine may be considered for those who received it previously.
Who will get their booster jabs first?
The JCVI’s interim plan suggested the booster programme would be rolled out in two stages, first to all adults aged 70 and over, care home residents, the immunocompromised, and frontline health and social care workers; and then to adults aged 50 and over, and those aged 16 to 49 years who are in an influenza or Covid-19 at-risk group (ie. those prioritised for the flu jab in a regular year).
On Tuesday, however, it was announced that booster vaccines will be offered to all people aged 50 and over, those in care homes and frontline health and social care workers – equating to some 30 million people.
All those who are clinically extremely vulnerable and anyone aged 16 to 65 in an at-risk group group for Covid (who were in priority groups one to nine during the initial vaccine rollout) will also be eligible for a jab.
The JCVI had already approved offering a third vaccination to 500,000 people over the age of 12 who are immunocompromised, separate to the booster programme. Research suggests that the immunosuppressed could benefit from a third dose of the Covid vaccine to protect them from breakthrough infections.
Plans for vaccinating other groups such as healthy adults under 50 have not been laid out yet, the JCVI said.
