It was over in seconds and, as always, I didn’t feel a thing. "That’s you for another year", the pharmacist said, discarding the needle. It felt like £21.95 well spent.
Having been deemed eligible last autumn for the free flu and Covid jabs, even though I’m lucky not yet to be 65, this year I was flying solo. I don’t mind the small cost of a private flu vaccination, but if I also want a Covid booster, that’ll be around £100. Way too much, don’t you think?
More than a few disgruntled older folk would surely agree. Starting back in September, on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), all over-65s and younger people with compromised immune systems, are being offered a free flu vaccination.
Covid boosters, however, are restricted to over 75s, plus those who are immunosuppressed or live in care homes for older adults. Following this change of policy, Katherine Crawford, the head of Age Concern Scotland, has called the 2025 vaccination programme "puzzling". She says more older people should automatically be offered a free Covid booster along with their flu jab.
When my husband received his invitation to join the village outing to the evocatively named Volunteer Hall in Galashiels – where once military reservists drilled in preparation for combat, now people bravely submit to a little pin prick - he assumed he’d be getting the double jab as before. On discovering only one arm needed to be bared, he was unconcerned, and possibly relieved. Nevertheless, reports from some pharmacists suggest the shifting goalposts have led to challenging behaviour by those who do not understand the new NHS criteria.
One pharmacist told the BBC that the first day of his Covid clinic earlier this month was "disastrous", with 60% of 380 bookings being ineligible. "We have had some unpleasantries, a few people that have been extremely abusive. If the NHS is putting a restriction in place, I can’t go around that."
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Given that only 12 months ago all over-65s received both flu and Covid jabs as a matter of course, it is a marked change in the guidelines. Where once this cohort was chivvied to get their boosters, with the NHS expressing disappointment and incomprehension at those who did not take up their appointments, now around 13 million of us, who were eligible in autumn 2024, are no longer on their list.
Consequently, many in a senior age-group are feeling bewildered, even cheated. After years of obediently turning up for the Covid vaccine, believing they were helping to keep themselves and their communities safe, they feel let down. It’s as if their health no longer matters.
You can see why the head of Age Concern Scotland is irked, especially since she does not see why Scotland should follow UK-wide recommendations for the vaccination roll-out. Delivering the Covid booster more widely, she says, would relieve pressure on the NHS. Equally importantly, it would help reduce isolation among the old.
Without protection against Covid, they will feel at greater risk of contracting an illness which for too long has hovered over us like a bogeyman. As a result, their behaviour might well change. For fear of catching the dreaded lurgy, some will undoubtedly decide not to venture out or meet friends and family as normal. With winter approaching, that is a dismal prospect.
Troublingly, from what I have heard from friends with significant underlying health problems, they have not been invited for a Covid booster either. One has a letter from her GP strongly recommending that she be given it at her flu appointment next week, but as yet she does not know if the vaccinator will be amenable. It will all depend, she assumes, on how they feel on the day.
Such inconsistency and uncertainty has been evident in recent years. Some folk who are perfectly fit but concerned for those close to them, have asked and received it on the spot. Others have been flatly denied. At a time when everything possible was being done to ensure the NHS was not overwhelmed, this didn’t make much sense. Gallingly, instead of being treated as if they were responsible citizens, they were made to feel like hypochondriacs. Which perhaps they are, but that isn’t really the point.
I suspect some of us have become over-anxious about contagion of any sort since the pandemic. Someone only has to cough on the bus for heads to turn reprovingly or passengers to change seats. Watching my young grandson picking up a biscuit he dropped on the pavement and happily munching - with no ill-effect - is a welcome reminder that we shouldn’t over-sterilise our environment, or dread the occasional infection.
By now, for the vast majority of younger people Covid has lost its sting. Increasingly, it is seen as a nothing more worrying than a bad cold. Most with symptoms don’t bother to test, and wouldn’t dream of wearing a mask to protect others. That would just feel weird.
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This is, in its way, very good news, since it shows life is fast returning to the way it was before 2020. And this is, of course, precisely why the booster is no longer deemed necessary for the majority of under- 75s. According to the JCVI, Covid today is a "relatively mild disease for most people", resulting in significantly reduced rates of hospitalisation and death.
So, despite reports of a threefold increase in demand for private booster jabs this autumn because of the change in eligibility, the overall picture is encouraging. The only real problem, as I see it, is that this welcome improvement has not been widely broadcast. In particular, there has been a woeful oversight in informing 65-75-year-olds about the diminishing danger Covid poses.
Had the NHS communicated this better, then levels of anxiety and confusion would have been dramatically reduced. It would also have underlined the fact that it is flu, rather than Covid, that remains a serious risk for the elderly. Had they made this clear, those who don’t see the point in getting vaccinated against influenza each year might have been encouraged to change their mind. And simply by emphasising that all children, aged two to 18, are now getting free flu jabs, the message would be reinforced that this is where the fight now lies. Just like in the old days.
