Boris Johnson last night piled pressure on his scientific advisers to cut the waiting time for booster jabs from six months to five.
If a decision is made immediately, nearly 9 million more Britons will become eligible for a third dose of the vaccine.
Concern has been growing that the rollout of the Covid booster scheme has been far too slow, putting the public at risk as cases rise. At present, over-50s and those with health problems are invited for their jab six months after their second dose.
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday called on ministers to cut the waiting time to five months.
Mr Johnson agreed that it was an ‘extremely important point’. The six-month deadline was imposed by the Government’s advisers on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The Prime Minister’s intervention suggests the JCVI may be asked to revisit the timeline.
Speaking during a visit to Northern Ireland, Mr Johnson urged over-50s to come forward and get their booster jabs as soon as they become eligible – saying it was important to ‘fortify’ defences against the virus.
‘The most important thing people can do now is get that booster jab. You get the call, get the jab. We have done about four million booster jabs already but as soon as you become eligible, as soon as you get that call, everybody over 50 should be getting that jab.
‘We are in a much better position going into the autumn/winter now than we were 12 months ago, incomparably better, because of the huge level of protection we have got from the vaccines.
‘Ninety per cent of the adult population has antibodies right now, but we most fortify ourselves further.
‘The numbers are high, we can see what’s happening, we can see the increase, now is the time to get those booster jabs.’
Earlier in the day, Mr Hunt said: ‘At its peak in the spring, we were jabbing 400,000 people a day. Now it’s less than 200,000 people a day.
Boris Johnson agreed that it was an ‘extremely important point’. The six-month deadline was imposed by the Government’s advisers on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The Prime Minister’s intervention suggests the JCVI may be asked to revisit the timeline
‘If you look at the higher hospitalisations, cases and death rates, compared to countries like France and Germany, the heart of it is not actually things like mask-wearing and Covid passports, it is their higher vaccine immunity.
‘On the decision that people cannot have their booster jab until six months after their second job, how hard and fast should that rule be? Does it really matter, when it is only nine weeks until the Christmas holidays, if someone has their booster jab after only five months?
‘Should we not look at having some flexibility on that decision, so that we can get more people in for their booster jabs more quickly?’
Replying, vaccines minister Maggie Throup did not indicate a change was on the horizon.
‘The JCVI has provided advice that there should be a minimum of six months after the second jab, but I would like to reassure the House that the immunity does not fall off a cliff edge,’ she said. ‘It has waned slightly but not sufficiently, so there is still time for people to come forward.
‘Obviously, we are encouraging them to come forward as soon as they are eligible, but they still have a huge amount of immunity over and above those who have yet to get their first jab.’ But later the PM’s official spokesman suggested that pressure could be brought to bear on the JCVI.
‘We want to move as swiftly as possible on boosters,’ he said.
‘More than 5.5 million people have been invited, more than four million doses have been administered so far and we want to move as quickly as possible on that.
‘As you’ll know, there is that six-month time period that the JCVI currently recommends... so it’s only when those people become eligible that we are able to provide their boosters.’ Asked about Mr Hunt’s call to cut the waiting time to five months, the spokesman said: ‘That six-month gap is on JCVI advice currently. Obviously we would expect them to keep that under review and if they were to change the advice we would want to be in a position to move on that.’ It comes as a new study confirmed the importance of a third dose for boosting protection.
A booster shot of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine is 95.6 per cent effective against Covid-19 compared with two shots and a placebo, the study revealed.
Ugur Sahin, the head of BioNTech, said the ‘important data’ added to the body of evidence suggesting that a booster dose could help ‘protect a broad population of people from this virus and its variants’.