LONDON (LifeSiteNews) – The British government has modified eligibility for COVID boosters to exclude most healthy people below age 50.
The new eligibility, announced last week, was recommended by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), an advisory committee set up by the government for COVID policy. The JCVI recommended the modification, citing the overall immunity among Britons for COVID-19 as well as the limited severity of infections caused by recent COVID variants.
As per the modification, those that are above 50, those who have a risk for catching COVID, frontline health and social care workers, and those who care for or live with the immunosuppressed are eligible for the boosters. The eligibility change takes effect on February 12, the day the government’s autumn booster campaign, which began in September, comes to an end.
Steve Russell, an official from the National Health Service (NHS), a government body that oversees Britain’s socialized medical system, said in a statement, “Following the decision by the government to accept JCVI advice today, I would encourage anyone who has not yet had their COVID booster to book an appointment in the next couple of weeks and make the most of the offer available.”
Health Minister Maria Caulfield shared Russell’s sentiment, saying, “I want to encourage anyone who hasn’t had their booster jab – whether it’s your first booster or if you’re eligible for an autumn booster – to come forward before Sunday 12 February. It will top up your immunity and keep you and your loved ones protected”.
In addition to recommending the eligibility change, the JCVI also recommended that the government should prepare for an “emergency surge vaccination response” in the case of a new variant and recommended that research be performed to determine what the best time to begin a jab campaign should be.
The committee also advised that the government should be ready for another booster campaign in the autumn and that a smaller group of people should be offered a spring dose next year, including those over 50 and the immunosuppressed. The JCVI also stated that it intends to have a “more targeted offer during vaccination campaigns” with regard to campaigns related to the initial jab over the course of 2023. No date has been given for a change in eligibility for the initial jab.
The announcement comes as the number of people taking both the initial jab have “plateaued” in recent months among all groups while the number of people getting the boosters at “less than .1%” per week for all eligible people below 50 since last April.
Reacting to the eligibility modification, Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a U.K.-based cardiologist who has publicly called for a suspension of the Pfizer jabs on account of their links to severe health and safety risks such as myocarditis, tweeted, “But this alone is not good enough. We must help the vaccine injured & make the government, the regulator & Pharma fully accountable so this NEVER happens again.”
Britain’s change in eligibility for the booster is contrasted to actions the White House took last September when it recommended that the COVID jab be treated like an annual flu shot.
Many Americans harbor moral and practical reservations about the COVID-19 vaccines, given the use of aborted fetal cells in their development, the superiority of natural immunity, COVID’s low risk to most otherwise-healthy individuals, the vaccines’ failure to prevent infection, their accelerated development under former President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed initiative giving them only a fraction of the evaluation and development time vaccines normally take, the lack of transparency from their manufacturers, and mounting evidence of serious adverse effects.