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The Covid-19 spring vaccine campaign is underway again. You’re eligible if you are 75 and over, live in a care home for older people, and if you are of any age (over six months) with impaired immunity.
So far, the numbers booking their jabs are way down on last spring’s programme. But doctors are reminding us that Covid often spikes in the summer, so it’s important to get the vaccine if you’re eligible.
It’s also a good time to check if you’re up to date with other vaccines you’re entitled to, says Saga Magazine’s columnist, GP Dr Mark Porter: "It’s important to be proactive".
The COVID-19 virus continues to circulate and took up an average of 1,000 NHS hospital beds a day over last winter – it hasn’t gone away.
“If you had your COVID-19 vaccination in the autumn, its effects only last for six months, so it will be wearing off now,” says consultant geriatrician professor Jugdeep Dhesi, president of the British Geriatrics Society.
“Although cases of Covid-19 have fallen, the virus is still around and can be very dangerous, particularly for the over-75s, who are twice as likely to have a worse outcome, including an infection severe enough to need hospital admission.
“People are still dying from Covid-19, although the numbers are much lower now. This is why it makes sense to protect yourself and your community by getting the spring booster.”
Dr Julie Yates, deputy director for Immunisation Programmes at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), says that although Covid-19 is more prevalent in winter, it is not seasonal and can occur year-round.
“In previous years, it has returned and spiked again in summer: as we move into spring, protection from any earlier Covid-19 vaccination starts to wane, so it’s important to take up the offer if you are eligible.”
Figures from last spring’s vaccination programme showed that those who received a vaccine were around 45% less likely to be admitted to hospital with Covid-19, from two weeks after getting vaccinated, compared to those who didn’t get vaccinated in the spring programme.
However, despite these benefits, uptake for the autumn 2024 Covid-19 vaccine was only around 60 per cent across those aged 65 and over, rising to closer to 70 per cent in those aged 80 and above.
And so far, the numbers booking their spring Covid jab are down on last year’s spring programme. A total of 563,154 booster jabs were arranged in the six days after the national booking system opened on March 25 this year. But last spring, 700,000 Covid jabs were booked in the first three days of the programme.
Dr Yates says you should come forward rather than wait for the NHS to call you. The national booking system is now open online, or if you can’t get online, you can call 119 free of charge.
“Although having your spring vaccine around six months after your last dose is the usual timeframe, you can have it as soon as three months after a previous Covid-19 dose,” says Dr Yates.
“If you are eligible, you can still get protection from the Covid-19 vaccine even if you have not taken up the offer of a Covid-19 vaccination in the past.”
You will be given a booster dose of a vaccine made by either Pfizer or Moderna. The shots have been updated to target a different COVID-19 variant. They give slightly higher levels of antibody protection against the more recent strains of the virus, including Omicron.
The Covid-19 spring vaccination programme closes on 17 June.
Don’t forget there are number of other different vaccines you may be eligible for to protect you against bacterial and viral bugs.
Dr Porter says, as a general rule, don’t rely on being invited in for them.
“Lots of practices will contact their patients, but it’s still too easy to fall through the cracks. Visit the relevant section on the NHS website on vaccines and, if eligible, be proactive and contact your surgery to ask or book in.”
This vaccine is relatively new, as it launched last September, but it’s not too late if you haven’t had it yet as it’s a year-round infection.
The vaccine protects against RSV bacteria, which are a common cause of coughs and colds, but also of serious complications, including pneumonia, in people over 75 plus those with a weakened immune systems.
You’re eligible for the RSV vaccine if you are aged 75 to 79. And if you turned 80 after 1 September 2024, you are eligible until 31 August this year (2025).
“More than 50 per cent of those eligible for the vaccine have been reached through the catch-up campaign. However, with more than one million yet to receive their vaccination, there is still a significant opportunity to increase protection across the population,” says Dr Yates.
The benefits of being vaccinated are already being confirmed; an analysis by UKHSA published in The Lancet medical journal found there were 30 per cent fewer hospital admissions in 75 to 79-year-olds who are eligible for the vaccine under the new programme. The protective effects are predicted to grow as more people get vaccinated.
Flu can cause serious complications such as pneumonia and bronchitis in older people and those who are immunocompromised and make existing conditions worse.
This is one for your diary later in the year. “It’s not possible to get the flu vaccine after 31 March,” says Dr Yates. “Most eligible adults will be offered a flu vaccine from early October. As flu typically starts to circulate in December, it's best you get the vaccine by the end of November as it takes up to 14 days to work.”
You’re eligible for the flu vaccine if you’re aged over 65, live long term in a residential care home or are in a clinical at-risk group (this includes people with heart, kidney or liver disease, diabetes, stroke/TIAs, chest complaints, a BMI of 40 or more and long-term steroid use). You’re also eligible if you are a carer for an elderly or disabled person or a household contact of someone who is immunocompromised.
You can have the flu vaccine at the same as the COVID-19 vaccine or the shingles vaccine, but it’s not usually given at the same time as the RSV vaccine.
This vaccine helps protect against infections caused by pneumococcal bacteria that can cause pneumonia, septicaemia (also known as sepsis, a bloodstream infection) and meningitis (an infection in the brain and spinal cord). It also protects against other respiratory illnesses, such as ear infections and sinusitis.
You’re eligible for this one when you turn 65 and after, and you need one dose for lifelong protection. People at higher risk of getting seriously ill may need more than one dose. You’ll usually have protection by about three weeks after you’ve had the vaccine.
Shingles is a painful rash caused by the herpes zoster virus, the same virus as chickenpox and cold sores. It stays dormant in the body but can reactivate decades later.
Half of all cases of shingles occur in people aged 60 or over, and they are at higher risk of developing serious complications such as postherpetic neuralgia, a painful nerve condition. The shingles vaccine is being offered to heathy people aged 70 to 79 who have not yet been vaccinated, as well as younger people with a severely weakened immune system. You remain eligible for the vaccine until your 80th birthday unless you have a weakened immune system, in which case you can be immunised after the age of 80.
“Healthy people aged 60 to 70 will become eligible for the vaccine in the next five years – it is a rolling programme given as you turn 65 or 70, so you may have to wait until you turn 70 to get the vaccine,” says Dr Yates.
You may need to be proactive about booking your second dose, which needs to be done six months after the first.
Read more about new research on the possible benefits of the shingles vaccine in preventing dementia here.
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