Prioritising teachers or police will slow the rollout, expert insists
VACCINE distribution in the second phase should be decided by age because prioritising teachers or other occupations would slow down the rollout, a leading government adviser has said.
Government sources said this was not a formal recommendation, rather “a practical acceptance that local areas can have this flexibility if they need it”.
Prof Anthony Harnden, deputy chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said there “isn’t a strong scientific argument” to immunise teachers.
He told MPS on the science and technology committee that workers in meat processing factories would have a better case to jump the queue. Prof Harnden said any deviation from the age-based approach could be harmful as it would slow down the overall number of doses administered each day.
The committee has now submitted its recommendations to ministers, who are expected to make a final decision on the second stage of the rollout in the coming days.
All adults aged 50 and above, as well as patients of all ages over 16 with underlying health conditions, are expected to have been offered a first vaccine dose by the end of April.
Ministers have faced repeated calls from unions to prioritise teachers for vaccines before reopening schools.
Police representatives have also called for officers to jump the queue.
Prof Harnden, professor of primary care at Oxford University, said: “When you look at the data, particularly that school survey of infection data, it doesn’t suggest that teachers are any more at risk of acquiring infections or coronavirus than any other member of the population. So in terms of affection. And in terms of disease. There isn’t a strong scientific argument to immunise teachers outside those aged 50 or those with underlying health conditions.”
Last night, it was reported that the JCVI had recommended that prisoners be vaccinated en masse as part of rollout phase two. However, government sources played down the suggestion.
Prof Harnden emphasised that any decision to prioritise particular groups would be for politicians, and that the JCVI would be “steering our advice based on science”.
He added: “One of the key reasons this programme has been so successful is because it has been simple, it’s been deliverable, and it’s been rolled out very quickly and people understand it. If you start picking out certain groups, it will make it more complicated. The risk of doing that is slowing the programme down, and then it may be that some people will be exposed to the virus and to some harm that they wouldn’t have been otherwise.”
As of last night, more than 18,242,873 first doses had been administered in the UK, plus 669,105 second doses. Ministers promised last week that the pace of the vaccine rollout would double by the end of April, as patients started to return for a second dose
Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, announced the start of a “second sprint” in which the NHS would aim to vaccinate all remaining adults over 50, plus others with underlying conditions, or groups five to nine on the JCVI list. The rest of the adult population will form rollout phase two.
Prof Harnden’s comments came as teachers at special schools were told they would have to wait for a jab, despite office-based council employees already being offered the vaccine. Staff at special schools in North Tyneside demanded to be vaccinated on the basis that working with children with special needs put them at added risk.
Elsewhere, some special school staff have been vaccinated and others have not. The teachers have asked to be prioritised as some pupils cannot wear masks, others struggle to maintain social distance and some forget to catch their coughs and sneezes.