GPs criticise Covid vaccine messaging as rates continue to rise

Patients attending for winter vaccines are confused and concerned they are no longer eligible for both a flu and Covid jab after officials changed the rules, GPs have warned.

With vaccine clinics well underway, GPs say they are fielding questions from patients expecting to have both immunisations, but who no longer fall into the limited eligibility for Covid.

There has been little communication with patients – with pharmacists also warning that a flaw in the national booking system was allowing people to book a Covid vaccine when they were not in fact eligible.

It comes as the latest surveillance data from the UK Health Security Agency shows that respiratory viruses continue to increase.

Influenza and Covid both showed increasing activity with the latter now circulating at medium levels with a rise in Covid hospital admissions.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said the autumn Covid vaccine campaign in 2025 should be restricted to the over-75s, residents of a care home for older adults and those six months and over who are immunosuppressed.

It means those with high-risk conditions, over 65s and pregnant women are no longer eligible.

Frontline healthcare workers will also no longer receive the vaccine.

The committee said over the past four years, population immunity to SARS-CoV-2 had been increasing ‘due to a combination of naturally acquired immunity following recovery from infection and vaccine-derived immunity’. 

As Covid becomes an endemic disease, the JCVI has moved from a pandemic response to a standard assessment of cost effectiveness, it said. 

Considering the impact on hospitalisation and death, the oldest adults and individuals who are immunosuppressed are the two groups who continue to be at higher risk of serious disease, the committee noted.

NHS England said more than 4.3 million people had received their flu vaccine by the end of last week – 28% more than had been vaccinated at the same time last year.

More than a million people had received a Covid-19 vaccine on the NHS, it added.

Professor Azeem Majeed, a GP and professor of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, said in his view the JCVI’s recommendation was appropriate.

But he added, the absence of a comprehensive public information campaign has led to public confusion and dissatisfaction.

This is particularly apparent among those aged 65-74 ‘who have become used to receiving both influenza and Covid-19 vaccinations in recent years’. 

‘General practices, including my own, are receiving questions from patients about these changes.

‘Patients often feel that eligibility criteria have been altered unexpectedly, requiring additional time from primary care teams to explain the changes and their rationale.’

Dr Steve Taylor, GP co-lead of Doctors’ Association UK said: ‘The change in criteria for Covid vaccination is ill-thought through.

‘There has been a spike in Covid infections in the past couple of months and, rightly, many older people are concerned about contracting Covid again, or for the first time.

‘Increased awareness about long-term health effects of repeated infection in a small cohort of people is also a concern.

‘Given that over-65s are attending for flu vaccines, it seems entirely reasonable that those that want a Covid vaccine should be eligible to have one.’

Professor Sheena Cruickshank, an immunologist and professor in biomedical sciences and public engagement at the University of Manchester, said people were confused and concerned why something that was considered deadly a few years ago is now considered mild by the JCVI.

‘If you decide to change the goalposts then you must communicate the whys very strongly and clearly – I am not convinced this has happened quite as it should.’

She added: ‘There is a wealth of disinformation being circulated about the Covid vaccines particularly – partly because the majority used in UK are now mRNA vaccines – and this decision to reduce free access needs to be handled well as it could feed into suspicions about the mRNA vaccines and reduce confidence and trust in the vaccines and medicine.’

NHS England said the wording on the booking website had been changed to make it clearer the eligibility criteria had been tightened and urged people to check their eligibility before booking.