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LONDON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The chair of Britain's vaccine
group said on Tuesday that calling an earlier and faster
COVID-19 vaccine booster campaign would not necessarily have
been the right policy given the scientific evidence at the time.
Britain is racing to offer all adults a booster by the end
of the year as the country faces what Prime Minister Boris
Johnson has termed a "tidal wave" of Omicron variant infections.
Asked if in retrospect it would have been better to have an
earlier booster campaign to protect against a new variant,
Professor Lim Wei Shen, chair for COVID-19 immunisation on the
government's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation,
said: "The simple answer is no.
"The decision in September to offer vaccination to people
over 50 for example was based on the Delta variant, which was
circulating and the waning of protection against severe
disease."
He said the committee had decided to accelerate the booster
campaign on Nov. 29, three days after WHO declared Omicron a
variant of concern.
"We could have potentially called it earlier - two days
earlier - but I don't think we could call it before it was
identified," he said.
Lim also told the committee of lawmakers that the country
could have moved earlier to vaccinate children aged between 12
and 15 if it had had the benefit of extra data on safety.
He said shots could be offered to children as young as five.
"We are discussing that at the moment," he said. "We're also
waiting for the vaccines to be approved by MHRA."
Lim said the decision could be made before Christmas.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Paul Sandle)
