In January, when Michael Warren finished chemotherapy for blood cancer, the prognosis looked good. But as the 59-year-old was readying to return to work, he caught Covid. A series of hospital visits in the months that followed saw his weakened immune system seem to recover, only for it to deteriorate as soon as he returned home. In June, after learning that his first grandchild was to be a boy, he died.
Michael’s 29-year-old daughter Chelsea believes he would now be cradling her two-week-old had he been offered Evusheld. The antibody drug has been found to reduce the risk of immunosuppressed patients developing symptomatic Covid by 77 per cent. Approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in March, it was expected to be made available in August. But delays and excuses have prevailed instead, with the drug – currently in use in 32 countries including the US and Israel – still unavailable on the NHS to the UK’s half a million clinically vulnerable people, for whom Covid jabs do not work. This is because many immunocompromised people don’t develop antibodies, leaving them at severe risk if they do contract Covid. With figures appearing to show reduced efficacy against some Covid strains, the government declared last month that “the quality of data is insufficient to warrant action to progress to patient access”. It states it will re-evaluate the situation after clinical trials end in late spring 2023.
