Coronavirus: Labour to question government over plans to vaccinate half of UK population

Head of country’s vaccine taskforce reveals that officials hoping to administer doses to around 30 million adults

Labour is set to question the government in parliament on Tuesday over the recent revelation that less than half of the UK population could be vaccinated against coronavirus.

Kate Bingham, the head of the country's vaccine taskforce, told the Financial Times that officials were hoping to be able to administer doses to around 30 million adults and "we just need to vaccinate everyone at risk".

Although health secretary Matt Hancock said earlier this year that he hoped “everybody would have the vaccine”, Ms Bingham insisted over the weekend that a nationwide rollout was “not going to happen”, adding that health workers and people over 50 would be the main recipients.

The government has since stressed that the “most vulnerable groups” will be the priority if and when a vaccine is approved.

Mr Hancock meanwhile said on Monday that ministers would be taking advice on the deployment of the vaccine based on “clinical advice” from the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI).

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Shadow health secretary Jonathan Asworth is expected to call for further clarity from the government during health questions in the Commons on Tuesday.

Ms Bingham’s approach echoes the strategy adopted by the World Health Organisation, which has proposed that the first groups to be vaccinated should be frontline health and social care workers; people over 65; and individuals with underlying conditions that put them at higher risk of death from Covid-19.

Martin Hibberd, a professor of emerging infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the government “may need different strategies depending on the particular properties of any vaccine that becomes available”.

“Some of the vaccines currently under trial may not be suitable for elderly people or those with reduced immune responses,” he said. “It may be that alternative approaches … may be more appropriate for these groups if there is no suitable vaccine for them.

“Alternative target groups might include key workers, but also perhaps those most likely to transmit the virus.”

Eleanor Riley, a professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Edinburgh, said the government’s policy “makes sense” - but only if a vaccine reduced the severity of Covid-19, rather than block infection infection or prevent transmission.

“If the vaccine is a disease modifying vaccine, then only those at risk of severe disease are really going to benefit,” she said.

“However, if the vaccines that are to be deployed are shown to also reduce transmission, then there is an argument for rolling out the vaccine more widely.”

Last month, the JCVI issued new guidance on the UK’s vaccination programme. It said the order of priority should start with:

- Older adults in a care home and care home workers

- All those aged 80 and over and health and social care workers, though they may move up the list

- Anyone 75 years of age and over before considering other adults over the age of 50.

The government and JCVI has said this guidance could change dependent on which types of vaccines are granted approval for widespread immunisation.