Young Londoners get incentive to take jab
YOUNG Londoners getting their first vaccine jabs this week will be entered in a draw to win tickets for the Euro 2020 football final, the city’s mayor announced on Tuesday (6).
The incentive comes as the vaccine roll-out is now targeting those aged 18 and over. England are in the last four of the event and on the verge of their first major championship final – and trophy – since 1966.
The final will be played at London’s Wembley Stadium on Sunday (11).
Unlike some other countries, Britain has not had to offer anything to encourage take-up of Covid vaccines.
But the government is in a race against time to jab as many people as possible to slow the rapid spread of the delta variant, as the economy reopens.
The offer is “an incentive to younger Londoners to receive the jab”, London mayor Sadiq Khan said.
Londoners who come to walk-in vaccination centres or make appointments for a first jab could win a pair of tickets to the Euro final or 50 more tickets for an “exclusive viewing” at Trafalgar Square, he said.
Khan promised the Euro 2020 final will be the “safest ever” to limit the spread of the virus. The 60,000 fans – or 75 per cent of Wembley’s capacity – will have to show evidence they are fully vaccinated or have a negative lateral flow test.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. We’re hoping that as many Londoners as possible use the incentive to get the jab,” Khan said.
More than half of adult Londoners have already had both jabs, he added.
The UK has administered nearly 34 million second doses so far, outstripping EU countries, but its death toll of more than 128,000 is the highest in Europe.
Meanwhile, scientists are trying to figure out how to best protect people whose immune system is compromised by HIV, cancer or a recent organ transplant and who wish to be vaccinated.
In one of the largest research projects into the issue so far, dozens of French hospitals have launched a two-year study of some 10,000 people to help shine a light on how people with these conditions respond to immunisation for Covid.
“The goal is to find out how we can best protect those patients,” the study’s head Odile Launay said.
Authorities like the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say people with compromised immune systems can receive the vaccine, but stress that there is still little data on safety.
“If you have a condition or are taking medications that weaken your immune system, you may NOT be fully protected even if you are fully vaccinated,” the CDC said, urging people to continue taking precautions and to consult their doctor.
Another French study published in the New England Journal of Medicine looked at 100 transplant patients and found their immune response to vaccines was insufficient after two doses. Scientists recommended three doses for those patients, which is now the rule in France.