“We won’t know how long the vaccine lasts until we have had time to notice a drop in immunity, but I think it’s become clear recently that these vaccines don’t seem to last forever – they offer a lot of protection, but they need a boost.” – The professor confirmed. Peter Openshaw of Imperial College London.
Meanwhile, Nadim Al-Zahawi, the former deputy health minister in charge of the immunization program and now education minister, revealed to The Sun that the government plans to give annual booster doses. “Ultimately, our plan is that we hope to be the first major economy to transition from a pandemic to an endemic state and have an annual vaccination program,” he noted.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also called for booster doses. “Vaccinating is the most important thing we can do for our country today, if we want to protect our NHS, if we want to end this virus,” he pleaded on Monday.
The number of third doses of the vaccine given in the UK has exceeded 10 million. Currently, they receive an average of 300,000 people a day, but as the Daily Mail reports, the pace is not enough to meet the goal of giving a third dose to all 32 million eligible people before Christmas. On the current average, 10 million people will remain unvaccinated by then.
Currently, people over 50 are eligible for the third dose, people under that age are either at particular risk of getting sick from other medical conditions or living with these people, and health and social workers are on the front lines.
Bartłomiej Niedziński / PAP / Agata C.
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