Young, healthy people may be wondering whether they’ll be offered a fourth Covid shot, or if it’s even necessary. The UK government had limited the fourth dose to people with severely weakened immune systems over the age of 16.
That list has now been expanded to people aged 12 and over who have a weakened immune system, care home residents and people aged 75 and over. With so much Covid about again, should the list of people eligible be extended further?
Writing in The Conversation, Rebecca Aicheler, a senior lecturer in immunology at Cardiff Metropolitan University said a fourth Covid jab won’t significantly cut the risk of young, healthy people catching or spreading the virus. She explained that people with weakened immune systems (for example older people, or people with certain medical conditions) are less likely to generate protective antibodies in response to the Covid vaccines, and so require more doses to give them better protection.
