Booster jabs ‘set for go-ahead next week’ – but vaccine creator says not everyone may need them
Booster vaccines are reportedly set to be given the go-ahead next week, despite a professor who helped develop the AstraZeneca jab warning that a mass campaign may not be necessary.
According to The Times, data suggests that an additional Pfizer dose, months after a second vaccine is given, significantly boosts the body’s immune response to coronavirus.
A positive benefit was seen among those who had previously been given Pfizer or AstraZeneca jabs too, indicating that vaccines could be mixed and matched.
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Booster jab programme expected this month
However, the newspaper said that millions of older Britons may only receive a third jab later this autumn to ensure they have maximum protection over the winter.
Data about the effectiveness of booster vaccines was reportedly delivered to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation yesterday.
Sky’s chief political correspondent Jon Craig said the government is determined to press ahead with booster jabs, but ministers are waiting to receive final recommendations.
He added: “The prime minister is desperate to avoid having to bring in lockdown measures in the autumn, hence he wants to go ahead with the booster jabs for as many people as possible, flu jabs, and possibly – if he can get it through the House of Commons – COVID passports as well.”
But speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert said immunity is “lasting well” for most people who have been double jabbed, and she suggested surplus doses should instead be redirected to countries where vaccination rates are low.
Dame Sarah, who led the development of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine, said the elderly and people with weakened immune systems should be in line for a third jab, but told the newspaper: “I don’t think we need to boost everybody.”
She added: “As the virus spreads between people, it mutates and adapts and evolves, like the Delta variant.
“With these outbreaks, we want to stop that as quickly as possible.”
Dame Sarah also called on the UK to “do better” in supporting countries where a small percentage of the population have received a jab – adding that “the first dose has the most impact”.
The latest government figures show 48,344,566 people in the UK have now received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and 43,708,906 have had their second.
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COVID-19 will ‘come back to haunt us’
Her remarks echo those of former prime minister Gordon Brown, who told Sky News on Sunday that COVID-19 will “come back to haunt us” if jabs aren’t distributed to developing economies.
Mr Brown warned that new variants like Delta could emerge and potentially hurt double-jabbed Britons unless vaccination rates in Africa improve.
He added: “We are doing the worst possible thing when it comes to making the world safer against COVID. If we leave these people unprotected, if it spreads uninhibited, it will come back to us.”
Politics
University tuition fee rise branded ‘morally wrong’ – as Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson defends increase
The education secretary has said no decision has been made on whether university tuition fees will increase with inflation each year.
Bridget Phillipson has announced the maximum cap on tuition fees in England will go up in line with inflation from April 2025.
The cost of tuition will increase by £285 to £9,535 next year – the first rise in eight years.
Politics latest: Big name comeback in new Tory shadow cabinet
There will also be a rise in maximum maintenance loans to increase in line with inflation, giving an increase of £414 a year to help students with living costs.
However, the education secretary did not say if the rise would continue after that.
Speaking to Sky News’ Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge, Ms Phillipson admitted she did not know what would happen with tuition fees after April 2026.
“We’re going to look at this and the maintenance support and the sector overall as part of the reform that we intend to set out in the months to come,” she said.
“So no decision, no decision has been taken on what happens beyond this.”
She said the government will be looking at “what is required… to get our universities on a more sustainable footing… but also to deliver a better deal for students as a part of that”.
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University tuition fees to increase
The minister said she also “intends to look at” uprating the threshold at which students need to start paying tuition fees back in line with inflation.
Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), said the tuition fee rise was “economically and morally wrong”.
She said: “Taking more money from debt-ridden students and handing it to overpaid underperforming vice-chancellors is ill conceived and won’t come close to addressing the sector’s core issues.”
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The National Union of Students (NUS) said students were being asked to “foot the bill” to keep the lights and heating on in their universities and to prevent their courses from closing down amid the “crisis”.
Alex Stanley, vice president for higher education of the NUS, said: “This is, and can only ever be, a sticking plaster.
“Universities cannot continue to be funded by an ever-increasing burden of debt on students.”
Universities have been making up for fees being frozen since 2017/18 by taking in international students who pay more.
However, student visa numbers have fallen after the previous government made it more difficult for them to come to the UK recently, so universities can no longer rely on the fees.
The US presidential race could determine the fate of more than half a dozen proposed crypto ETFs.
Dame Priti Patel has made a comeback as Kemi Badenoch has appointed her shadow foreign secretary, Sky News understands.
Ms Badenoch, who became Conservative leader on Saturday, started officially appointing her shadow cabinet on Sunday evening.
Politics latest: Reaction as Badenoch makes more shadow cabinet appointments
On Monday afternoon, the two biggest jobs were confirmed, with former home secretary Ms Patel being given the shadow foreign secretary role.
Former shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, who ran in the Tory leadership race and is considered more of a moderate than Ms Badenoch, has been made shadow chancellor.
Robert Jenrick, who lost out to Ms Badenoch, is the new shadow justice secretary, sources told Sky News.
Earlier in the day, Laura Trott, who served as chief secretary to the Treasury under Rishi Sunak, was appointed shadow education secretary.
The new Tory leader made her first appointments on Sunday evening ahead of her new top team meeting for the first time on Tuesday.
Mel Stride was work and pensions secretary and stood to be Tory leader
Now the Conservatives are in opposition, the shadow cabinet’s role is to scrutinise the policies and actions of the government and to offer alternative policies.
Nigel Huddleston and Dominic Johnson, junior ministers under Mr Sunak, were appointed joint chairmen of the Conservative Party.
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The role involves overseeing the party’s headquarters, where staff and committee members have their offices.
Essex MP Dame Rebecca Harris was confirmed as chief whip after the interim chief whip Stuart Andrew said she was replacing him.
She will be responsible for ensuring Tory MPs attend and vote in parliament as the party leadership desires.
Read more:
Who’s who in Kemi Badenoch’s new shadow cabinet
University tuition fees to increase in England for first time in eight years
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Badenoch: ‘We let standards slip’
Former foreign secretary James Cleverly, who came third in the leadership race, said on Friday he would not be joining Ms Badenoch’s top team.
Ex-prime minister Mr Sunak, his former deputy Sir Oliver Dowden, ex-chancellor Jeremy Hunt and former Brexit, health, and environment secretary Steve Barclay have all said they will be joining him on the backbenches.
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