My flu jab is booked. But where on earth is my Covid booster?

The text arrives every year, like clockwork: “Dear Mr Moore, you are eligible for a flu vaccine… you can book by clicking on the link below.”

Next month I will duly pitch up to the surgery – on a weekend, no less – get the shot and probably put up with a sore arm for a few days. Flu jabs do that with me. I’ll happily take that over what a nasty flu strain can do to someone with type 1 autoimmune diabetes.

But this inevitably raised a question in my mind. About another virus we’re all very familiar with: Covid. Can I get a booster for that too? If so, when? And will it be any good?

I’ve had Covid twice: the OG (original gangsta) version pre-vaccines, and then Omicron, with the benefit of a double dose of AstraZeneca and a Pfizer follow-up. The full spread (with apologies to Moderna).

Needless to say, the OG flattened me, and the aftereffects were with me for months. While Omi wasn’t much fun and laid me up for a few days, it was very much easier to bear.

I have a biological science degree and a good one. I was a fierce and unapologetic advocate of vaccines prior to all this. I really didn’t need any more convincing. But this provided it.

So, booster? Anyone? Will I get a text at some point? You’d hope so. Type 1 autoimmune diabetes, which is really quite rare, elevates the risk. And I’m now – to my chagrin – over 50. That one I share with a lot of people. There’s just no stopping the ageing train. Ditto the risks that come with it. I think I still qualify as “middle-aged”. But the station labelled “old” is visible on the horizon, even if I am still wearing jeans and band T-shirts and fully intend to carry on doing so.

The government website would have us believe things are moving. Frontline workers and those in care homes will be seen first. Rightly so. But what then? It’s all a bit confusing. The site says all adults aged 65 years and over can also get jabs. Plus, those aged 6 months to 64 years in a “clinical risk group”.

Is that me? To find that out, you have to go to the Covid-19 chapter of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) green book. Which seems designed to put people off. Including doctors. A friend of mine with type 2 diabetes and other health issues told me their GP had told them they weren’t eligible at all.

Except the UKHSA green book says I’m due a booster. And so is my friend, who was told they weren’t eligible. In fact, all types of diabetes (there are a fair few) are covered. For those wondering about their own eligibility, you want to turn to table three on page 23.

Is it just me or could it be that after the successful pandemic vaccination programme, British bureaucracy has taken over? And is now messing it all up by leaving people in the dark – including doctors – while all those new variants you may have heard about make merry?

And each new variant has the potential to kill people as it spreads and mutates. How many? Well, in the year to the end of August 2023, some 21,902 people had Covid mentioned on their death certificate. By way of comparison, an interim analysis by UKHSA published in The Lancet showed that there were 14,623 excess deaths in England associated with influenza during the 2022–23 season. And that was regarded as a particularly bad one.

In other words, Covid has not gone away. Indeed, it never went away, and it can still kill every bit as effectively as its fellow notorious respiratory illness. The Covid death toll fluctuates wildly but it does not seem to be restricted to a season, like flu is.

Long Covid can also very effectively mess people up for long periods of time and there may be an economic impact – potentially a large one – from having lots of workers being off sick during the winter months. Isn’t it rather sad that sometimes it’s only money that will move the needle?

So, boosters: a damn good idea. But how effective will they be?

“The vaccines currently offered to the vulnerable population are outdated, unlike the recently MHRA-approved XXB vaccines,” said Clinically Vulnerable Families (CVF) whom I spoke to recently. CVF is a support group for those most in danger from the virus – those who’ve been shamefully forgotten about.

“The government must distribute these more effective vaccines instead of less protective ones. We also need to expand the eligibility criteria for antiviral treatments to safeguard vulnerable individuals.”

“During Covid” is a phrase I see and hear often. Maybe it helps people to cope and compartmentalise the trauma of the pandemic, which hit even those who didn’t encounter the scourge by leaving them locked up in their own homes. As we’ve seen with climate change, some people often try to ignore what they fear. Some try to actively deny it. Often aggressively.

We hear too much from them. We need to face up to reality and start doing sensible things to thwart the microscopic spiked monster.

CVF points to the analysis of classroom air cleaning technologies published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) last year. It shows that using air filtration can serve as a useful tool in reducing the spread of all airborne infections, making for fewer school absences. That would be worthy of consideration. I also concur with its urging for masks in healthcare settings. Perhaps in other places, too.

And we need to get those shots out to those that need them. My own wife – who is immunocompromised – actually had to battle to get her boosters. Now my T2 diabetic friend may be in the same boat. Will I face the same thing?

This is putting people – not to mention the NHS – at risk. And it’s crazy. There is no other word I can think of to describe it.