Ministers could OK fourth Covid doses for all despite top adviser’s reservations, suggests No 10

This afternoon No 10’s spokesperson has suggested that minister could still approve a fourth Covid jab available to all, despite reservations expressed by a top adviser.

At this afternoon’s Downing Street briefing the prime minister’s official  spokesman said: 

“That is clinical advice and the JCVI [Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation] meet regularly to look at things and, in this instance, on waning of the booster dose.

“There is some early evidence of that and they’ll be considering it, and we’ll await their advice before making a decision.”

The spokesman affirmed that  ministers would consider clinical advice and maintain a “very close eye on” the “waning efficacy of second doses and the interplay of Omicron on that as well” as they continue to review on whether booster jabs could be made a requirement for certification denoting full Covid vaccination.

Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, chair of the JCVI told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning that: “It really is not affordable, sustainable or probably even needed to vaccinate everyone on the planet every four to six months.

“We haven’t even managed to vaccinate everyone in Africa with one dose so we’re certainly not going to get to a point where fourth doses for everyone is manageable.”

Pollard, who also serves as director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, explained that there was not “full certainty” on whether a further booster dose would be necessary in the UK.