The government of the United Kingdom officially declared that it would no longer require healthy people under the age of 50 to receive COVID booster doses.
As the UK begins to recover from the pandemic, the universal Covid vaccine program will be phased out this year.
“As the transition continues away from a pandemic emergency response towards pandemic recovery, the [Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation] JCVI has advised that the 2021 booster offer (third dose) for persons aged 16 to 49 years who are not in a clinical risk group should close in alignment with the close of the autumn 2022 booster vaccination campaign,” the government said in a news release Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Brits under the age of 50 were urged to get their free booster shot before the program is discontinued.
“In England, the closure of the autumn booster campaign and the first booster offer will be on 12 February 2023. We strongly encourage everyone who is currently eligible for a first booster and is yet to come forward to do so before the offer closes,” JCVI said.
The government is also urging those unvaccinated to receive their first dose before the offer expires.
The vaccine program will now focus on elderly people and those who are immunocompromised. For thousands of Brits, these will be their seventh and eight jabs.
“Similarly, the JCVI is advising that the primary course COVID-19 vaccination should move, over the course of 2023, towards a more targeted offer during vaccination campaigns to protect those persons at higher risk of severe COVID-19. We strongly encourage individuals who have not had a primary course to come forward for their primary course before the offer closes.”
The Daily Mail reported:
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises No10, warned today that an emergency surge vaccine response might be required if a new variant with ‘clinically significant biological differences’ emerges.
However, none of the strains circulating currently, including either the Kraken or Orthrus, warrant any scaling up of the programme.
The autumn Covid booster campaign should be offered to those ‘at higher risk of severe Covid’, the JCVI said.
It did not specify the exact groups that should be eligible.
But under the campaign — which began in September — over-50s, residents and staff at care homes and frontline health workers were invited.
On top of these groups, five to 49-year-olds who are a clinical risk group, live with an immunosuppressed person or are carers were also offered a booster — in a programme similar to one carried out for the annual flu vaccine.
Meanwhile, healthy adults under the age of 50 who have not taken up the offer of a booster have been given just two-and-a-half weeks to take up the offer before they are no longer eligible.
Invites will be taken away on February 12.
The panel also said the UK should end its universal offer of first and second doses this year, although it did not recommend a timeline.
This means that only certain people will be eligible for the primary course of the vaccine —- the first and second jabs — at certain times of the year.
At present, anyone who was aged five or over on August 31 2022 can still get their primary course at walk-in centres or by using the NHS’s national booking service.
The decision comes a day after Esther McVey of the UK Parliament demanded an urgent and thorough investigation into excess deaths.
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UK is the latest country to end giving COVID boosters to people under 50.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Denmark would bar people under 50 from receiving the COVID vaccine.
In July 2022, it was no longer possible for children and adolescents aged under 18 to get the first COVID vaccine injection and, after September 1, 2022, it was no longer possible for them to get the second injection.
Only those who are over 50 and those who are at higher risk are eligible for COVID shots.
“People aged 50 years and over will be offered vaccination. People aged under 50 who are at a higher risk of becoming severely ill from covid-19 will also be offered vaccination against covid-19,” according to Danish Health Authority.
Denmark Bars Covid Vaccines for Almost Everyone Under Age 50