Pfizer vaccine available for older people and care workers

4th Dec 2020

Pfizer vaccine available for older people and care workers

Now that the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have approved the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, it will be made available to older people, NHS and care workers, from next week.

A priority list has been published by The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which sets out that residents and staff working in care homes for older people should get the vaccine first.

As the vaccine has to be delivered at very cold temperatures, the government has said 'at first we will only be able to deliver it from hospital hubs'.

Pfizer has said 800,000 doses are being delivered to the NHS this week. The elderly and care workers will need to travel to hospital hubs initially to get the vaccine.

However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted at a Downing Street briefing, that he had not yet got "sign off" from the MHRA to deliver the vaccine to care homes. Further authorisation is needed from regulator before the 975-dose boxes can be split up into batches suitable for distribution to care homes.

The JCVI priority list order is as follows:

1. Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers

2. People aged 80+ and frontline NHS and social care workers

3. People aged 75+

4. People aged 70+ and individuals on the ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ list

5. People aged 65+

6. People aged 16-64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality

7. People aged 60+

8. People aged 55+

9. People aged 50+

It is estimated that collectively, these nine groups represent 99 per cent of preventable deaths from COVID-19.

*/