Coronavirus: Vaccination
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make a statement on the availability of covid booster vaccinations to lung cancer patients receiving a targeted therapy.
Answered by Mrs Sharon Hodgson
The Government is committed to protecting those most vulnerable to COVID-19 through vaccination, as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The primary aim of the national COVID-19 vaccination programme remains the prevention of serious illness, resulting in hospitalisations and deaths, arising from COVID-19.
The focus of the JCVI advised programme is targeted vaccination of the two groups who continue to be at higher risk of serious disease, including mortality. These are older adults and individuals who are immunosuppressed.
Health is largely devolved and decisions about the organisation and delivery of vaccination services, including who to vaccinate, are matters for each nation to decide. For England, the Government has accepted the JCVI advice for spring 2026 and in line with the advice, a COVID-19 vaccination is being offered to the following groups:
- adults aged 75 years old and over;
- residents in care homes for older adults; and
- individuals aged six months old and over who are immunosuppressed.
The COVID-19 chapter of the UK Health Security Agency Green Book on vaccination and immunisation sets out details of who should be included in these categories. The eligibility criteria for immunosuppression include immunosuppression due to disease or treatment. This includes patients undergoing chemotherapy leading to immunosuppression and patients undergoing radical radiotherapy.
As with all vaccination programmes, the JCVI continues to keep the COVID-19 vaccination programme under review.
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