Confused about JCVI and COVID shots

[mtbc]

Our lack of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination provision in the UK is said to stem from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation's rather limited consideration of the impact of COVID-19.

My impression of COVID-19 is that there is enough accumulated evidence of risk of life-changing long-term effects, ranging from cognitive to vascular, perhaps also immunological, and enough extra risk from reinfection, that I should be fairly concerned given that our lives don't allow us to live like hermits, and that SARS-CoV-2 infection seems to remain an ongoing issue as mutations continue.

Also, that JCVI's assessment considered rather little of the above and that's most of why they don't judge it worth handing out vaccinations rather more freely.

I wonder to what extent I am mistaken in the above. Or, if not, if there are any good summaries that lay the case out clearly and persuasively, to help me be yet another source of pressure on our elected representatives. Also, how susceptible JCVI might be to political pressure, or if a rather more limited assessment is somehow required by their remit.

And, if JCVI were to be more expansive in the evidence considered, if that would actually change the cost-benefit sufficiently.

Part of why I suspect that I may not just be catching hysteria from the swivel-eyed is that American health insurers seem to intend to continue covering such immunizations. One would expect them to excel in brutally realistic analysis of health statistics.

Comments

[emperor]

I decided I was rich enough to afford to buy a covid jab (and a flu jab).

[mtbc]

It looks as if they're cheaper than I thought, perhaps I can get all us done too.

[andrewducker]

Only £120 for me all in.

[dewline]

Living in Ontario, Canada (as presently known), and seeing as the provincial government is still willing to support vaccination for all where COVID and influenza are concerned, I got both of my vaccine updates a week ago tomorrow. I've asked if there's some way I might qualify for RSV vaccination as well. Current provincial "guidance" suggests that I'm still too young for it, and I am skeptical of that.

[fred_mouse]

My assumption is that the evidence must be out there, because the Australian government continues to fund free annual vaccinations for covid for most of the population. The exceptions are those considered medically at risk and those over 65, who are eligible every six months.

[andrewducker]

Have a summary of current research:
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2025/10/31/Physicist-COVID-Seriously-Enough/

[mtbc]

Oh, cool, I have one of that guy's books, definitely seems a credible fellow at least in his own field. Also interested in anything you hear about why JCVI took a different approach in its thinking.

[andrewducker]

It looks very much like the government have told them "Only consider absolutely direct effects".

[mtbc]

Definitely a leading hypothesis.

[thewayne]

*sigh*

Every country, or group thereof, as soon as either The Orange Dumpling was elected or Kennedy was appointed, should have stopped looking to the USA for medical guidance and started looking to either best practices and/or each other. I'm glad that here, the states seem to be doing overall a decent job. I got my flu shot Saturday afternoon and will be getting Covid Friday afternoon and my MMR re-up the following Friday.

[mtbc]

I also appreciated getting the rapid tests in the mail for free, I'd test each morning before my first in-office day each week. (There was a gap but then some became available again.)

[dreamaastrid]

I've received both my flu jab (September) and COVID jab (October) this season. Also got a titer test for measles and it shows I'm still protected and my immunity has not worn off from my childhood vaccines.

[mtbc]

Excellent, I've heard of a few people who were surprised to find they'd lost their immunity.