Is the Covid booster still necessary

Good point Rosie51 and people are told to go to work with it - and test kits have to be purchased.

For 83 years I have had every vaccination available and am grateful for them. If I'd been born, say, 50 years earlier, I could be dead by now, from whooping cough, diphtheria, polio, TB, typhoid....flu and Covid - not to mention several tropical bugs. I will continue to accept protection as long as it's available.

I firmly believe in vaccinations. I had my latest Covid jab a few weeks ago, Moderna apparently, with no bad reactions at all.
I don't think they would still be offered to the elderly and vulnerable without good reason.
As long as they are offered I shall have them.

NotSpaghetti

Farzanah I don't think we have reached "herd immunity" for Covid, even at its peak.

95% need to have the vaccine for measles for example so I would expect Covid to be similar.

Yes, you are right and my argument was flawed. It would need covid vaccine to be offered to the whole community possibly regularly, for herd immunity and it appears the government deems it unnecessary at this stage, presumably because they believe a level of immunity is taking place through natural infection, and that covid is serious only for those who are vulnerable.

Covid vaccine doesn’t appear to offer long term immunity, and therefore the onus is upon those who are deemed vulnerable by age or medical susceptibility to take up the vaccine as offered. Similar to annual flu vaccination.

I don’t think this policy whilst practical (and money saving) takes into account the large numbers of people still catching covid, which is still circulating, and many consequently suffering with long covid.

I shall continue to have mine.. I would never refuse protection for anything.. knowing what 'sods law is like'

I had covid last Christmas and was ill for 6 days and 11 days till I got a negative test.

I realise if I had not had the vaccines I would have been much worse.

annodomini

For 83 years I have had every vaccination available and am grateful for them. If I'd been born, say, 50 years earlier, I could be dead by now, from whooping cough, diphtheria, polio, TB, typhoid....flu and Covid - not to mention several tropical bugs. I will continue to accept protection as long as it's available.

An Excellent Comment

*Thank You.

Well said annodomini

I have a friend who is antivax. She has all kinds of explanations. Funny though, when she wanted to travel abroad she had to have the vaccination or she wouldn't have been allowed in to the country she wanted to travel to.

When DH was ill with cancer, the district nurse came to the house and stuck needles in his arm and mine.

That's your flu and shingles jag, said she.
I'm sure if the covid vax was available she'd have given it to us.

Herd immunity works for diseases like measles when being infected or vaccinated gives lifetime immunity. If 95% of population is immune, an occasional non-immune infected person is very unlikely to spread the infection.

Unfortunately, Covid infection or vaccination only gives very short lived protection against re-infection so it seems unlikely that herd immunity will ever be reached.

I'm very pro-vaccine and have always got all available to me including annual flu one and Covid boosters till last year. Having caught Covid twice, both mild doses within a couple of months of boosters, I decided there wasn't much point in any more boosters for now. I know a few people who have had Covid recently but none who were very ill- only knew they had it because they did self-test.

However, I definitely wouldn't discourage anyone from getting yet another booster - mine is a personal decision.

Covid is around, but just not as deadly and virulent as 4 years ago. I'm 56 now and had every vaccination until 2 years ago when I was deemed not to be in a vulnerable group. Took my 79 year old mother for her vaccination two weeks ago as she was in hospital earlier this year and I can't take risks with her health.