UK Stops Boosting Under-65s in COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign
People under the age of 65 will no longer be offered COVID-19 vaccines unless they are otherwise eligible, the UK government said on Aug. 8, 2023. The announcement came after the official advisory body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said boosting under-65s is unlikely to be cost-effective . It's the first time that the JCVI has taken cost effectiveness into account in its advice for COVID-19 vaccine deployment. In February, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) dropped under-50s from its aged-based universal vaccination programme following the JCVI's interim advice that the uptake rate in this age group had dropped to below 0.1 percent per week. According to an analysis published by the DHSC on data from last winter, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) estimated that for people aged between 60 to 64 who have no risk factors, 27,100 shots will be needed to prevent one hospitalisation, about 45 times the amount it said is needed among the...