Covid-19 Boosters in the UK – Statement

This autumn is the first since the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) changed its policy on who can receive Covid-19 vaccination boosters following the change to exclude the majority of the ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ groups including MND.

Some of you will have received the booster without an issue. Your GP/health professional will have exercised his/her own clinical judgement. However, many patients have been refused outright because of the new policy.

The policy gives flexibility to healthcare professionals. They can make exceptions on an individual basis. However, we are finding that many are not doing so.

As an informal patient group, we urge the government and JCVI to urgently review the eligibility criteria for the current and future booster programmes. The now endemic status of Covid-19 demands this. The exclusion of people with MND from automatic eligibility is not only medically indefensible, it is economically disproportionate.

Below we attach a statement signed by Professor Ammar-Al-Chalabi, Professor Dame Pamela Shaw and Professor Christopher McDermott and other leading neurology consultants.

We will do all we can to try to get the current policy changed, whether it is for this autumn or for future booster programmes.

You can help in a small way by signing and sharing this current petition.

Thank you

United2EndMND

Statement – COVID vaccination and MND

People with MND are not automatically eligible for COVID booster vaccination this year. While an argument could be made that MND does not make someone more vulnerable to the effects of COVID, anyone with MND affecting muscles involved in breathing would have more difficulty dealing with a respiratory tract infection and should therefore be regarded as vulnerable.

People with MND who have respiratory muscle weakness manifest by symptoms of breathlessness on walking or activities of daily living, disturbed sleep, or the inability to lie flat, or those with reduced vital capacity on testing, should be regarded as vulnerable and be eligible for vaccination. Such a recommendation would be in line with the view of the Chief Medical Officer’s Office during the pandemic.

Signatories

Professor Ammar Al-Chalabi, Professor of Neurology and Complex Disease Genetics, King’s College London

Professor Dame Pamela Shaw, Professor of Neurology, University of Sheffield

Professor Chris McDermott, Professor of Translational Neurology, University of Sheffield

Dr Andrew Barritt, Consultant Neurologist, Royal Sussex County Hospital

Dr Caroline Barry, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital

Dr James Bashford, Consultant Neurologist, King’s College Hospital

Dr Marc Edwards, Consultant Neurologist, University Hospital of Wales

Dr Pablo Garcia-Reitboeck, Consultant Neurologist, St George’s Hospital

Dr Hisham Hamdalla, Consultant Neurologist, Salford Royal

Dr Timothy Harrower, Consultant Neurologist, Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital

Dr Tom Lambert, Consultant Neurologist, Royal Stoke University Hospital

Dr Danielle Leighton,  ST7 Neurology trainee, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital

Dr Tom Massey, Consultant Neurologist, Cardiff and Vale University Healthboard

Dr Sara Mazzucco, Consultant Neurologist, Great Western Hospital

Professor Karen Morrison, Honorary Professor, Queen’s University Belfast

Dr Aleksandar Radunovic, Consultant Neurologist, Royal London Hospital

Dr Alex Thompson, Consultant Neurologist, John Radcliffe Hospital

Dr Tim Williams, Consultant Neurologist, Royal Victoria Infirmary

Professor Carolyn Young, Consultant Neurologist, The Walton Centre