Care homes will get vaccine first
CARE home residents and workers are likely to be first in line to get a coronavirus vaccine as soon as one becomes available.
The second highest priority is expected to be those aged 80 and over, and health and social care workers.
Next will come those with a higher medical risk of coronavirus and the oldest people, according to a new provisional priority list published by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. Last in the queue will be people under the age of 50 with no raised risk from the virus.
Although officials have looked at ethnic minority people and men, who are both more likely to die from coronavirus, they are not so far included in the priority order.
No vaccine has yet been proven to protect against coronavirus, although some have been shown to be safe and produce an immune response.
However, experts are hopeful at least one of the vaccine candidates in trials across the globe will prove successful by next year, and perhaps even by Christmas this year.
The JCVI states in a newly published report: ‘Current evidence strongly indicates that the risk of serious disease and death increases exponentially with age and is also increased in those with a number of underlying health conditions.
‘ Mathematical modelling indicates that as long as an available vaccine is both safe and effective in older adults, should be a high priority for vaccination.’ The report adds: ‘Frontline health and social care workers are at increased personal risk of exposure to infection with Covid-19 and of transmitting that infection to susceptible and vulnerable patients.’
Its priority list, which is still provisional due to a lack of information on which vaccines will finally become available, and if they will work for all age groups, puts older adults in care homes and care home workers top. Then comes all those 80 and over and health and social care workers, followed by those 75 and over, and then those 70 and over.
Next are people 65 and over, who have equal priority alongside high-risk younger adults, and then moderate- risk younger adults.
People with a higher risk from the virus include patients with chronic kidney disease, those who have had organ transplants, and people with dementia or poorly controlled diabetes. The UK has struck a deal to get early access to six vacthey cines, including the one developed at Oxford University.
The JCVI also prioritises people of 60 and over, followed by those 55 and over, then aged 50 and over, before a vaccine would be offered to the rest of the population.
Responding to the new report, Jon Cohen, Emeritus Professor of Infectious Diseases at Brighton & Sussex Medical School, said: ‘On the basis of what we know at the moment, this is logical and reasonable. However, it does not address directly other high-risk groups, for example those with serious underlying diseases that make them more vulnerable, or people from certain ethnic groups who are also more vulnerable.’