Prioritise COVID-19 vaccines for first responders (police, fire, ambulance)

The British Government need to prioritise and deploy the COVID-19 vaccine to First Responders alongside NHS workers. First Responders are at a higher risk of contracting and transmitting COVID-19 due to their increased level of exposure with the general public every day and lack of regular testing.

First Responders risk their lives every day to keep the public safe. Prioritising vaccines to First Responders alongside NHS workers will: • Ensure protection and safety of their health whilst carrying out their jobs on the frontline • Lower the risk of easily contracting/transmitting COVID-19 to co-workers, their families, and the general public • Help retain personnel and reduce sick-leave • Increase public confidence knowing that First Responders have been vaccinated ensuring public safety

The NHS has been working alongside its health and social care partners to ensure the vaccine can be administered safely and effectively as part of the largest vaccination programme undertaken in its history.

The government and the NHS are working hard to ensure everyone who is 70 and over, our health and social care workers and the clinically extremely vulnerable are offered the vaccine by mid-February. Over 12.6 million people across the UK have now received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and nearly half a million have received their second dose. There are now over 2700 sites across the UK already offering vaccines to those at risk by age and clinical priority.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is the independent medical and scientific expert body which advises the UK Government on prioritisation for all vaccines. The committee’s membership is made up of practising clinicians and individuals from academia who have considered and continue to consider the impact of Covid-19 and population prioritisation as new data emerges.

For phase one of the vaccine roll-out, the underlying principles at the forefront of the advice by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation are; to reduce mortality, to protect the health and social care systems, and to save lives. Given the current epidemiological situation in the UK, all evidence indicates that the best option for preventing mortality in the initial phase of the programme is to directly protect persons most at risk. Having identified age as being the biggest determining factor to increased mortality, vaccinations have been prioritised to care home residents and staff and those over 80, followed by health and social care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and clinical risk factors.