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.”
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Politics
UK and France have ‘shared responsibility’ to tackle illegal migration, Emmanuel Macron says
Emmanuel Macron has said the UK and France have a “shared responsibility” to tackle the “burden” of illegal migration, as he urged co-operation between London and Paris ahead of a crunch summit later this week.
Addressing parliament in the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday, the French president said the UK-France summit would bring “cooperation and tangible results” regarding the small boats crisis in the Channel.
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King Charles III at the State Banquet for President of France Emmanuel Macron. Pic: PA
Mr Macron – who is the first European leader to make a state visit to the UK since Brexit – told the audience that while migrants’ “hope for a better life elsewhere is legitimate”, “we cannot allow our countries’ rules for taking in people to be flouted and criminal networks to cynically exploit the hopes of so many individuals with so little respect for human life”.
“France and the UK have a shared responsibility to address irregular migration with humanity, solidarity and fairness,” he added.
Looking ahead to the UK-France summit on Thursday, he promised the “best ever cooperation” between France and the UK “to fix today what is a burden for our two countries”.
Sir Keir Starmer will hope to reach a deal with his French counterpart on a “one in, one out” migrant returns deal at the key summit on Thursday.
King Charles also addressed the delegations at a state banquet in Windsor Castle on Tuesday evening, saying the summit would “deepen our alliance and broaden our partnerships still further”.
King Charles speaking at state banquet welcoming Macron.
Sitting next to President Macron, the monarch said: “Our armed forces will cooperate even more closely across the world, including to support Ukraine as we join together in leading a coalition of the willing in defence of liberty and freedom from oppression. In other words, in defence of our shared values.”
In April, British officials confirmed a pilot scheme was being considered to deport migrants who cross the English Channel in exchange for the UK accepting asylum seekers in France with legitimate claims.
The two countries have engaged in talks about a one-for-one swap, enabling undocumented asylum seekers who have reached the UK by small boat to be returned to France.
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Britain would then receive migrants from France who would have a right to be in the UK, like those who already have family settled here.
The small boats crisis is a pressing issue for the prime minister, given that more than 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK in the first six months of this year – a rise of almost 50% on the number crossing in 2024.
President Macron greets Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle at his address to parliament in Westminster.
Elsewhere in his speech, the French president addressed Brexit, and said the UK could not “stay on the sidelines” despite its departure from the European Union.
He said European countries had to break away from economic dependence on the US and China.
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“Our two countries are among the oldest sovereign nations in Europe, and sovereignty means a lot to both of us, and everything I referred to was about sovereignty, deciding for ourselves, choosing our technologies, our economy, deciding our diplomacy, and deciding the content we want to share and the ideas we want to share, and the controversies we want to share.
“Even though it is not part of the European Union, the United Kingdom cannot stay on the sidelines because defence and security, competitiveness, democracy – the very core of our identity – are connected across Europe as a continent.”
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