Booster jabs are vital – why is it so difficult for clinically vulnerable people to access them? | Frances Ryan

Some patients say their third Covid vaccine dose has been wrongly recorded as a booster jab, resulting in them being turned away

If Boris Johnson is a betting man then he is putting it all on boosters. As the Omicron variant spreads throughout the UK, and early data shows three doses of the jabs are needed for protection, Johnson has announced a speed-up of the booster programme. All over-18s are eligible from Monday, with the aim of rolling out 1m booster jabs a day through GPs and even the army.

It’s a bold and necessary move but it would be naive to suggest it will be straightforward. Consider that the most jabs administered since the booster rollout began in September is a record of 699,192 on one day. The NHS website to book booster jabs had “technical difficulties” shortly after Johnson’s televised address, on top of previous IT glitches. There have already been accounts of people struggling to access their booster over the past month due to vaccine shortages, as well marginalised patients – such as those in rural communities – not being able to get to large centralised vaccine centres miles from their homes.

Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist and author of Crippled: Austerity and the Demonisation of Disabled People

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3ypyhyE