Pfizer Covid booster vaccines for 32million Brits ‘will start early September with 2,000 pharmacies rolling out scheme’
PFIZER Covid booster jabs will be given to 32million Brits from early September, it has been reported.
Ministers are said to be planning to deliver an average of almost 2.5million third doses a week, with 2,000 pharmacies rolling out the scheme.
It will mean GPs and other NHS staff can focus their time on patients waiting for other treatments, reports.
All adults over 50, and the immuno-suppressed, will be offered the booster.
And the campaign could start as soon as Sept 6, which, if all goes to plan, would see the rollout finished by early December.
It would mean anyone jabbed at least a fortnight before Christmas would get the benefits from their third jab in time for the 25th.
Proposals have reportedly been drawn up for the extra Covid vaccine to be co-administered alongside the flu jab, with one injection in each arm mooted.
A government source told The Telegraph: “That is the plan, wherever possible."
But they stressed it “depends on final JCVI [Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation] advice and coronavirus vaccine booster trials”.
It was earlier understood that anyone over 50 who received two doses of the AstraZeneca jab will get a Pfizer or Moderna booster shot this autumn.
It is to be given with the annual flu jab, as either a new vaccine designed to fight variants or another dose of an existing shot, reports say.
The AstraZeneca vaccine was mainly used on older Brits earlier on in the vaccination programme - but a source has said that those who first received the Oxford jab "would be getting an mRNA booster."
But the AstraZeneca is not an mRNA vaccine - whereas Pfizer and Moderna are.
A booster jab trial in the UK has shown that people who have already received two doses of AstraZeneca vaccine could have a stronger immune response if they were given a different jab as a booster.
Karina Butler, the chairwoman of National Immunisation Advisory Committee, told RTE Radio 1’s Today on Wednesday: “The department is currently considering our advice that has been submitted to them.
"We have made recommendations and we will await the advice.
"In fairness the data that came out on mixing very early on was encouraging but there was very little data on it.
"You have to wait and see.”
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A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said the booster programme would be “informed by the JCVI’s final advice”, with details of the rollout confirmed “in due course”.
An NHS spokesman said: “Community pharmacies have been an important part of the NHS Covid vaccination programme, the biggest and most successful in the health service’s history, and they will continue to play a vital role as we move into the next phase this autumn.”
In March it was announced that over-70s will be given a Covid booster jab from September under new government plans.
Vaccines chief Nadhim Zahawi said some people will be given three vaccination doses within the first 10 months of the jabs being in use.
Those in the top four priority groups for the original rollout – over 70s and frontline NHS and social care workers - will be the first to get the booster jabs, it's been said.
This comes as the Government continue to incentivise young people to take up their first dose of the vaccine.
But offering young people cut-price fast food if they get jabbed has been branded a panic move by MPs.
The vouchers for vaccine scheme will see companies such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Pizza Pilgrims give discounts to customers who get a vaccine in a push to protect more young Brits.
But the deal flies in the face of the Government’s healthy eating drive.
It is aimed at heading off a Tory revolt against Covid passports for access to nightclubs or football matches.
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One senior MP said: “One minute they tell us pizza is bad for us — now they’re handing them out.
" They are in a state of panic.”