The Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation have provided interim advice on a 2022 Autumn Covid-19 Booster. The boosters would be for more vulnerable adults, alongside frontline social care and health workers, in order to maintain their protection over the winter against severe COVID-19.
The advice should be considered as interim and for the purposes of operational planning for the autumn for the NHS, care homes and wider health community. The committee recognises that there is considerable uncertainty with regards to the likelihood, timing, and severity of any potential future wave of COVID-19 in the UK in the year ahead.
Despite these uncertainties, winter will remain the season when the threat from COVID-19 is greatest for individuals and for health communities. As in autumn 2021, the primary objective of the 2022 autumn booster programme will be to increase population immunity and protection against severe COVID-19 disease, specifically hospitalisation and death, over the winter period.
The JCVI’s current view is that in autumn 2022, a COVID-19 vaccine should be offered to:
- residents in a care home for older adults and staff
- frontline health and social care workers
- all those 65 years of age and over
- adults aged 16 to 64 years who are in a clinical risk group