Vaccine fatigue means elderly are less likely to get autumn Covid booster

Vaccine fatigue could impact the number of elderly people coming forward for an autumn Covid booster, a government adviser has said.

Last month, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised booster jabs should be offered this autumn to maintain vulnerable groups’ protection from coronavirus over the winter.

In its interim guidance, the JCVI said those eligible for a jab would include care home residents, frontline health workers, all those over 65 and adults aged 16 to 64 who are clinically vulnerable.

'Less likely to come forward'

Prof Adam Finn, of Bristol University and member of the JCVI, said on Monday that boosters were needed to prevent vulnerable people becoming seriously ill later in the year after immunity from previous jabs begins to wane.

Asked whether the take-up of the jab will be as widespread as it has been for previous rollouts, Prof Finn told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve seen all the way through that the younger you are, the less likely you are to come forward to get vaccinated - obviously because younger people feel less at risk and that’s correct, they are less at risk.

“But also with successive boosters, the rates of uptake - even amongst the elderly - does progressively get a bit lower, so I think people are becoming, for whatever reason, they’re less concerned and are less likely to come forward to get boosted.”

He added the current vaccines are “relatively reactogenic”, meaning people often feel “rotten” after they’ve had the vaccine.

“If we can find vaccines in the future that do that less, that might help,” he said.

September is the optimum time for booster

Prof Finn suggested September would be the optimum time to begin the booster programme, and that going too early or too late could leave patients unprotected.

Last week, NHS England published guidance for the upcoming booster rollout. It recommended a local systems plan to “co-promote and co-administer” vaccinations where possible.

Local commissioners can use vaccine centres to deliver the autumn boosters, the guidance said.

In the event of a Covid “surge”, systems should also plan how they would “rapidly deploy” additional vaccinations.

“These plans will need to limit the impact on primary care, routine and elective NHS activities, including other routine immunisation programmes,” the guidance said.

“We recognise this is a challenge and to support this work we will share further guidance shortly.”