Waiting time for Covid booster 'likely to be reduced' in Scotland

Reducing the gap between Covid vaccinations and the booster jag is likely to happen in Scotland, a public health expert has said.

According to the current NHS Scotland advice, the coronavirus booster should be given at least six months (24 weeks) after the date of the second vaccine dose.

Linda Bauld, a professor in public health at the University of Edinburgh, said speeding up the waiting time for the booster to a five-month wait would be “proportionate” in the wake of new variant Omicron being discovered in the UK.

Speaking on the BBC’s The Sunday Show, Ms Bauld said: “If you look at the data from the Pfizer trial, and other countries, reducing it from six to five months seems to be proportionate.

“I think we will hear that very soon.”

She added: “Israel and other countries are just boosting all adults, it’s not age stratified.

“You start with the most vulnerable but then you boost all adults who are eligible.

“That may be what happens here and we will at least go down to the 30s, probably below.”

The public health professor also said vaccinating children aged five to 12 would be a “reasonable next step”.

Currently, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommends only those over 12 are offered a jab in the UK.

The US, however, has started to offer it to younger age groups.

“There are many parents who are asking for that (children’s vaccinations),” Ms Bauld said.

“We will have more world data in due course, and JCVI has been very cautious on teenage and young people vaccination, but that does seem to me like a real potential future step.”

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS, Scotland’s biggest teaching union, said children over the age of five should be offered a Covid-19 vaccination to tackle the spread of the virus in schools.

Earlier this week, he said: “We are in favour of young people being offered that vaccine and we’ve said so at Serg (Scottish Education Recovery Group).

“I was surprised to discover at Serg that there is apparently no licensed vaccines by age group in the UK at the moment, although clearly the USA have started vaccinating that particular group.

“Hopefully, there’s some work going on to make sure that a decision is taken to allow that age group to be vaccinated.”