Under-40s are getting Covid boosters in defiance of NHS guidelines, it was revealed today.
Officials have yet to officially start inviting younger adults, despite huge pressure to ramp up the booster roll-out and save the nation from even tougher restrictions over Christmas.
But GPs involved in the scheme have began texting thirty-somethings, inviting them to make appointments. Some claim to have been able to get scheduled in within 36 hours.
Currently only over-40s can use the online booking system to pencil in a top-up jab, yet plans are in pace to expand the programme to all eligible adults next week.
Anyone given their second jab three months ago can get a walk-in booster, even if they are under-40 and can’t officially book. And those who were last vaccinated six months ago, the original gap between doses, will still be invited through the normal channels, regardless of their age.
The online booking system, only opened to over-40s this week, has already been hit by chaos, with dozens of eligible adults turned away even though they had managed to book a top-up jab because of a communications blunder.
NHS bosses last night launched a crack down to get a grip of the scheme, which No10 has vowed to put ‘on steroids’ to fight off the oncoming Omicron wave.
Scores of Britons queue at St Thomas’ Hospital in London this morning to receive the Covid booster jab
William Campbell from Gateshead was one of those who got his Covid booster yesterday
Massive queues at jabbing centres yesterday came alongside reports that some Britons who booked their booster appointment online are being turned away by staff telling them they need to wait six months between jabs, despite the NHS saying the wait is now three months
The NHS is not formally inviting the under-40s for a Covid booster yet, as much like the initial vaccine rollout, the jabs are being prioritised based on clinical risk from Covid, with older groups classified as being more vulnerable to a potential infection.
While there are concerns jabbing younger people ahead of older one could result in a postcode lottery, some experts have defended the move, stating it will help protect the public by boosting general immunity faster.
Ruth Rankine, director of primary care at the NHS Confederation, told The Guardian: ‘While the NHS’s focus remains on offering boosters to eligible people aged over 40 before the national booking system opens up more widely next week, we are aware that some primary care sites have begun to offer boosters to eligible people aged under 40 where they have spare appointments that have not been filled by the current cohorts and where they have sufficient vaccine stock.
‘The national guidance on the gap between doses is clear and that people should wait to be contacted by the NHS for their booster shots.’
Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs also supported the move and said that family doctors could be trusted to use their discretion to give vaccines to younger people if capacity allowed.
‘We need to get as many jabs into as many arms as quickly as possible,’ he said.
‘It’s important that at-risk groups are prioritised so people should wait to be contacted before trying to book their booster.
‘However, it’s possible that some regions will be going at a quicker pace than others for varying reasons to do with capacity and workload and GPs will use their judgment in the best interests of their patients and the wider public’s health.
‘GPs and their teams are working incredibly hard to deliver the vaccination programme, as well as continuing to deliver essential care and services to patients, and we’d urge anyone who is offered the booster to have it.’
This is not the first time Covid vaccines have been offered to younger groups ahead of the age bracket priority.
Similar incidents happened in the initial vaccine rollout, typically at walk-in centres and when local providers had an excess of supply.
The latest fiasco in the booster campaign comes after NHS bosses launched a crack down last night on the booster jab chaos that has embroiled the country by telling clinics to stop turning away eligible Britons.
Scores complained on social media that they were wrongly sent away after booking their appointment online.
They claimed to have been told certain jab clinics couldn’t dish out the jabs because guidance wasn’t updated to reflect the fact boosters can be dished out after three months instead of six.
An NHS representative said: ‘NHS sites are expected to vaccinate those most at risk from coronavirus first in line with JCVI guidance, which at present is people aged 40 and over, as well as those with health conditions and healthcare workers.
‘Nobody who has booked an appointment and is eligible for a booster should be turned away, and people aged 40 and over who are three months on from their second dose can now get their booster at walk-in centres too.’
The current rate of the booster rollout means Britain will miss the deadline to offer every eligible adult a Covid booster shot by the end January, instead hitting this target by 10 February
According to NHS data, many older age groups who have been eligible to get a Covid booster since September still have double digit percentage figures of people who are yet to get a third dose. Yesterday, the NHS online booking system for Covid boosters was opened up to the over 40s. 81 per cent of people aged 40-to-49 have yet to have a booster.
The majority of over 40s in got their second Covid vaccine by early July with most people aged 30-to-39 getting their second jab by the end of August. This means there are millions of people who are now eligible for a booster
The vast majority of adults and people over 16-years-old have now received their first Covid jab, and the proportion of children aged between 12-to-15 who have got their first vaccine is approaching 50 per cent
The latest blow to the beleaguered booster drive came after experts demanded Boris Johnson throw the ‘kitchen sink’ at the rollout.
A MailOnline analysis suggests 8million under 40s who got their second jab over three months ago could be boosted right now.
The UK has pinned its hopes on avoiding a catastrophic Omicron wave of cases on the booster programme, with the controversial ‘Plan B’ restrictions introduced by the Prime Minister earlier this week meant to buy time for as many people to get an extra jab as possible.
The announcement of new restrictions, such as working from home guidance, compulsory mask orders, came as studies suggested a third dose of Pfizer’s vaccine — which Britain’s roll-out is reliant on — was able to offer people people substantial protection from Omicron.
Britain’s booster drive kicked off in September with the older groups, following the discovery that protection offered by vaccines began to wane six months after the second dose of the jab was given.
The aim was to offer people additional protection ahead of what was predicted to be a difficult winter for the NHS.
In the face of Omicron, No10 has pledged to offer a booster to all 53million adults in the UK by the end of January, and promised to increase the number of jabs being given to 500,000-a-day.
Despite the ramp-up being launched with much aplomb, the booster campaign has so failed to speed up.
In fact, figures show it has performed worse on some days than prior to ministers’ promises to put it on ‘steroids’, languishing at about 386,000-a-day.
Critics say opening up the online booking portal to under-40s would help speed up the drive.
Matthew Lesh, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute thinktank, described the booster campaign as the only real way the UK could fend off Omicron, arguing the new ‘Plan B’ restrictions won’t turn the rising tide.
‘The failure to accelerate the booster programme will cost lives and livelihoods,’ he said.
‘The new restrictions and guidance are going to cost our economy billions of pounds.
‘It’s an absolute no-brainer to throw the kitchen sink at getting boosters into arms as quickly as possible. We need a national war effort.’
He added: ‘The booking system should have been already opened up to all age groups, as the Prime Minister said would happen weeks ago.
The above map shows the ten areas that have the most confirmed Omicron cases in England, according to the UK Health Security Agency. West Northamptonshire is the country’s hotspot for the mutant strain, although eight in ten areas on the list are in London
‘Anyone over three months since their second dose should be able to access a third immediately. There’s no longer supply issues, it’s all logistics, and can be done.’
Other experts however urged caution in such a move, stating that while the booster campaign definitely needed to be expanded, opening up the system to all age groups would create chaos, and that the country needed to prioritise those who’s immunity was waning the most.
Dr Simon Clarke, a cellular microbiologist from the University of Reading, said: ‘If the government just threw open the doors to the booster programme for all adults that could create chaos where people who have only recently been vaccinated take the places of people whose immunity is likely to have dropped much more.
‘It’s far better, I think, to copy the gradual release of boosters, but to work through the age groups as quickly as possible.’
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