{"id":3626,"date":"2026-07-24T10:37:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T09:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/?p=3626"},"modified":"2026-07-24T10:38:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T09:38:33","slug":"covid-vaccine-decision-will-backfire-dauk-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/covid-vaccine-decision-will-backfire-dauk-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid vaccine decision will \u2018backfire\u2019 DAUK warns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DAUK has warned that the decision not to offer a Covid vaccination to doctors and frontline health workers will \u2018backfire\u2019 with staff sickness and absences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Alison George, of the Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK) GP team, criticised the decision not to \u2018protect staff health\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She was responding to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/covid-19-vaccination-in-autumn-2027-jcvi-advice\/jcvi-statement-on-covid-19-vaccination-in-autumn-2027\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/covid-19-vaccination-in-autumn-2027-jcvi-advice\/jcvi-statement-on-covid-19-vaccination-in-autumn-2027\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) guidance<\/a> that the age at which people are offered an NHS Covid vaccine should rise from 75 to 80 in autumn 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reducing vaccination<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr George said: \u201cReducing&nbsp;vaccination to such a small group gives the impression to the public that we do not need to worry about Covid any more and that it can only harm the very oldest and most vulnerable in society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is not the case at all and will do nothing to encourage members of the public to protect themselves and those around them from a disease that is spread easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFrom an NHS staff member perspective it just confirms that DHSC and NHSE leaders have zero interest in protecting staff health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Steve Taylor, DAUK GP co-lead, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/394\/bmj-2026-100368.full\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">spoke to the BMJ about the guidance<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Vulnerable and marginalised<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said: \u201cThis issue with a raised age group again gives the wrong impression of the failure of the NHS to care for the vulnerable and marginalised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt also means some NHS staff will feel that their health doesn\u2019t matter. This feels like cost cutting rather than genuine choice over health benefits and certainly affects staff at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs DAUK has said previously, it will backfire, with staff sickness and absences. This should be a choice for staff and older patients.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Please support our work by contributing to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-the-work-of-the-doctors-association-uk-dauk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">our crowd funder<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DAUK has warned that the decision not to offer a Covid vaccination to doctors and frontline health workers will \u2018backfire\u2019 with staff sickness and absences.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":1585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[331,300,690,22,309],"class_list":["post-3626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-protect-the-frontline","tag-covid-19-vaccine","tag-covid19-vaccine","tag-dr-alison-george","tag-dr-steve-taylor","tag-vaccination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3626"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3629,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626\/revisions\/3629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}