Have you heard the good news about Covid hits? It has been reported that as of April 1, anyone over 12 years of age will be able to pay have one in Boots.
At £98.95, they’re not cheap, but eventually people in this country will be able to get the booster privately, as they already can in the US.
Actually, I don’t think that, in principle, any of us should pay for the blows against a widespread disease like Covid.
But for its own reasons, the Government has decided to limit who the vaccine is offered to, and if you are one of the millions of people left out of the current Covid vaccination programme, then £100 is an investment in my opinion . What you should do if you can afford it.
I received the vaccine for free as an NHS frontline worker, but otherwise I would log onto the Boots website and book the vaccine as soon as possible.
Excessive? You might think so, given that Covid is becoming less virulent and the initial reasons for getting vaccinated were to stop an acute illness.
What is being offered is the single dose of Pfizer, and the evidence shows that it is the most effective vaccine in protecting you against what really worries me as a doctor: long Covid.
And the fact is, for healthy people, a Covid infection won’t be much worse than a cold. So that’s a lot of money to spend to stop “just a cold.”
But I don’t think getting the vaccine has to do with the actual disease and symptoms – what’s being offered is the single dose Pfizer, and the evidence shows this is the most effective vaccine at protecting you against what really worries me as a doctor. : Long Covid.
That’s why I think anyone who hasn’t received the Covid booster this year should consider paying for it. And, to be clear, I do not own shares in or work for Pfizer (or Boots); My only interest is to see fewer patients come to my emergency department with symptoms.
Like any vaccine, the Covid vaccine has possible side effects. And it’s clearly not guaranteed to stop the infection completely: no vaccine can.
If the pandemic hadn’t happened, of course I wouldn’t want the vaccine, especially one that was developed so quickly and without the assurance of the long-term safety data that exists for other, more established vaccines.
But the fact is that after the pandemic, Covid will continue to circulate in the community and continue to infect us all at regular intervals for many years.
And looking at data from independent studies, this has shown that the benefits greatly outweigh the potential harms, not only in reducing the chances of contracting Covid and the severity of the infection, but, crucially, in reducing the chances of develop long Covid.
There is no doubt that long Covid is a genuine health problem, and I have seen too many previously healthy people stunned by it to risk contracting it. Its list of terrible symptoms ranges from brain fog to heart problems, fatigue and repeated infections. It’s not “all in the mind” as some suggest: people with long Covid may experience a reduction in brain volume (as seen in MRIs) and an impaired immune response to infections (as shown in analyzes of blood).
On a recent shift, I saw a previously healthy woman in her 20s arrive at the ER after a sudden collapse; Six months earlier she had contracted Covid and she had never recovered. She had to stop working due to fatigue and her weekly 5K runs in the park were a thing of the past.
He had also developed POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) and frequently collapsed because his heart rate rose dangerously high when he stood up. This time he cut his head when he fell; I was able to fix it quickly with stitches, but there are no quick fixes for your long Covid.
So the question is: can vaccines prevent Covid and long Covid? The answer is “yes” and “yes”, as shown in a series of studies and confirmed in strong and important new research, published in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine in January of this year.
The researchers examined GP databases that included more than 20 million patients from several countries in Europe and the United Kingdom. They found that if you received a Covid vaccine, it reduced your chances of getting long Covid by 46 per cent. Additionally, the study showed that the Pfizer vaccine was more effective than the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing long Covid.
Although it is not the “perfect” study (which would involve giving participants a vaccine or a placebo and comparing long-term Covid rates), it is the best possible and most ethically feasible study that could be conducted in the real world.
The results not only showed a massive benefit of the vaccine in preventing long Covid, but were also proven beyond statistical doubt.
But you might think that long Covid is not that worrying and that only a few people suffer from it… Well, let me remind you that the evidence shows that even mild Covid can lead to long Covid.
And in terms of numbers, around 2 percent of the population who have not received the vaccine contract Covid for a long time. But by having a vaccine, we can reduce that risk of long Covid by half to 1 percent.
That cut makes a £100 vaccine a good investment in my opinion. After all, I have purchased home insurance, even though the chances of my house burning down are much less than 1 percent. Likewise, I have insurance for my car and, contrary to my wife’s opinion about my driving, my chances of being in a car accident are less than 1 percent.
So why not pay £100 for long-term Covid insurance?
But for me the key question is why is the vaccine so expensive in the private sector and shouldn’t the NHS pay for everyone anyway?
I expect private vaccine uptake to be high, but that will create a two-tier health tier, where those who can afford the vaccine will have much lower levels of long Covid than those who can’t afford it. This is unfair and unjust.
The sad truth is that we live in an unjust and unjust world. And when it comes to our health and that of our loved ones, my moral conviction that such jabs should be a free for all would be outweighed by my desire to reduce the chances of ill health among my family and friends.
Finally, if you are considering getting vaccinated to reduce your risks of long Covid, also consider what else you can do to prevent it or minimize its severity: Covid rates are much lower in non-smokers, moderate drinkers, those with a balanced diet, exercise regularly and have a healthy weight.
Either way, one thing is for sure: you really don’t want to prolong Covid.
Professor Rob Galloway is an emergency consultant at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.
