Hi all, I hope you are all staying safe and well 😊. I know there has been a few worries and queries about the Covid vaccine eligibility for asthmatics, this is a statement from AUK and we have also written to JCVI for clarity - I hope this is helpful 👍
'People with severe asthma who are clinically extremely vulnerable and aged under 70 are in priority group 4 for the COVID-19 vaccine. This means you’ll get your vaccine at the same time as those aged 70-74. People with asthma who aren’t clinically extremely vulnerable will be in priority group 6 for the COVID-19 vaccine. This is anyone who isn’t on the clinically extremely vulnerable list, but is on the flu vaccination list and has been prescribed a preventer inhaler.
The Department of Health have confirmed to us that people with asthma who aren’t clinically extremely vulnerable will be in priority group 6 for the COVID-19 vaccine. We have asked them to update their published information to make this clearer. We are aware that the most recent update to the guidance has not included this change; but the Policy team are aware and will continue to make sure that people with asthma are included.
There isn’t a timescale for when the priority groups will be vaccinated, and the advice is to wait until you’re invited. We will keep this page updated when we learn more.'
*Update:* 25/1/21
Hi all,
We are urgently trying to get clarity on this and will update you all as soon as we hear anything.
Thank you all for doing this and getting the clarification. As with so many government departments/decisions (not just covid related and not just this current government), if they actually involved people who have the specialist knowledge then things would actually be less misleading!
Thank you for this but have no idea what the groups mean I presumed that although I’m high risk but not eligible for shielding due to my asthma being managed well at primary level I would be in the 65 and over group as this includes the at risk people (annual flu )as I understood it but the goal posts keep changing
Thanks Claire – it'll be interesting to see if as well as the overall vaccine totals whether they will be do regional updates on vaccinations so people can see how far things are progressing and moving down the priority groups
Thanks for clarifying this, I was certain they had made a misprint with regards to vaccination group 6 and I couldn't find any way to make them aware of this.
Thanks Asthma UK for stepping in and getting this clarified.
I wondered when there might be an official update to advice? I’m in my 40’s and borderline diabetic as well as asthmatic and I’m a bit worried that I may have to wait until around September to get the vaccine.
ATM I don't know but it is early days still in the vaccine roll-out, we will update as soon as we have any further information, please keep an eye on the AUK and BLF websites
Like lots of people here I was so relieved to see this post but now getting worried again (perhaps the Department of Health initially said yes but then realised there are quite a lot of us, and with the current political pressure to get through groups 1-9 ASAP they don’t want to make the task bigger?)
There have also been suggestions floating around that non-CEV asthmatics aren’t at increased risk after all, so I’m worried that they’ll use this to justify the cut even though the evidence I’ve seen so far is not convincing enough to reassure me. It seems to be based mainly on figures showing that proportions of severe Covid patients with asthma are similar to asthma prevalence in the general populations, and there are two big flaws with this:
1) Age ranges. Total asthma prevalence includes higher numbers of children, who are far less likely to develop severe Covid. Also a study I saw a few months ago (which I might have to try and find again if we’re going to have to fight our case on this!) showed that hospitalised patients with asthma were having similar levels of escalation/bad outcomes to the overall average, *despite a younger average age*, and surely patients who are still at some risk despite being younger is exactly what group 6 should be?
2) Extra precautions. The Green Book even acknowledges that hospitalisation/death data are unreliable for CEV groups due to reduced exposure while shielding- of course we haven’t been taking such extreme measures as the shielding group and it’s absolutely right that they’re in an even higher group than the rest of us- but compared to people without underlying conditions we’ve been doing whatever we can to reduce our exposure risk. Not just because we saw we were on the CV list but because we know if viral infections are one of our big triggers and/or we’re prone to chest infections. Friends my age were having haircuts, days out on public transport, meals in pubs and restaurants… over the summer and even again in December- I’ve done none of those things for ten months, and since I got a click and collect slot in the autumn I haven’t even been in a supermarket. So if people like me are being hospitalised at a similar rate to people like them, to me that seems like evidence that we *are* at increased risk. In terms of data, the Asthma Australia review that gets quoted as showing lower hospitalisations and no increase in deaths also showed lower *incidence*- but increased ICU admissions once hospitalised- so asthmatics were avoiding catching Covid in the first place, but more likely to end up in ICU once they did- and reducing pressures on ICU/ventilators is one of the government’s stated aims for the priority groups.
A) Clear evidence that we really aren’t at increased risk, based on figures corrected for both age and case numbers; leading to official removal from the CV list, along with a statement that we were right to take precautions based on what we knew last year but the evidence has now changed. If this is the case a lot of us are going to need a lot of reassurance- the message throughout has been (quite rightly) that Covid is not just a cold or flu but needs to be taken more seriously- and yet we might now have to believe that for us it’s *less* of a risk?
OR…
B) Add us back into group 6!
The big worry is that the numbers for non-CEV asthmatics look OK now because of all the extra care we’ve been taking, but once the restrictions get lifted because “all the at-risk groups” have been vaccinated, there will come a point when we can’t avoid it any longer, with everyone back at work/school- and if we are at some risk after all, we’ll find out too late.
In the meantime the uncertainty is already putting people at risk. I don’t feel like I can ask for accommodations from work any more, because when the government announce that everyone at risk has been offered a vaccine, but I still haven’t, they’ll see that I wasn’t on the risk list after all and it will look like I was making a fuss over nothing.
Or I suppose the third option would be to admit that they are limiting the numbers included in the priority groups, and acknowledge that once groups 1-9 are covered some groups will still be vulnerable- so we can at least continue trying to protect ourselves until they finally reach our age/occupation groups- but I'm sure that's far too much honesty to ask from politicians.
I've been offered the vaccine through work, however I read somewhere that asthma should be well controlled in the weeks leading up to having the vaccine. My asthma hasn't been well controlled lately so am I best to put the vaccine off until my asthma is better controlled?
I’ve just completed the training to be a vaccinator and being uncontrolled isn’t a contraindication that I’ve been told about - and the training was very thorough if that helps x
Thank you. I've been told by my GP I will be in group 9 (I am 54) and I also wrote to Esther McVey my local MP, but just got the response linking me to various sites. Since I found out I wasn't in group 6 as I expected, this has exasperated my asthma as I'm sure it will have done for al lot of us. x
Hi, my GP surgery have just confirmed I'm in group 9 and they say the have no control over this, it's down to NHS England.
Is there any way of having NHS England put me in group 6 as should be the case according to the dept of health guidelines? Any phone numbers or email addresses for them?
Hi. I'm the same as you. Plonked in Group 9. Carry a steroid card, on 3 steroids per day etc etc was in hospital last year. I'm furious. I was told by my GP that it was the JCVI, not NHS England. I posed a question to Esther McVey to see if this was just another silly algorithm that they had run (like they did with school children's exam results last year). Obv. didn't get a proper response. No idea what we can do. AsthmaUK are apparently working on this to get us back in Group 6.
Hi, it might depend what you mean by "3 steroids" - the ones they mean are oral ones (ie prednisolone) not steroid inhalers.
Hopefully Asthma UK will be able to make some headway in getting it sorted though - they do need to listen to those who know and to make sure their descriptions etc are at least correct even if people don't agree with them!
The Green Book lists these people as being eligible for the vaccine in priority group 6: “those with asthma that requires continuous or repeated use of systemic steroids or with previous exacerbations requiring hospital admission"
We are working with the Deputy Chief Medical Officer’s office to get a better understanding of exactly what is meant by this for people with asthma. For example, what does ‘repeated’ use of systemic steroids mean? How many courses of oral steroids would count here? Are there any high doses of inhaled steroids that would be included? And what does ‘previous exacerbations requiring hospital admission’ mean – is there a time limit e.g. last 5 years, or does it mean ever? And is one hospital admission enough to put someone in this category? These questions mean that we can’t yet offer specific, helpful advice for people with asthma about whether they will be invited in group 6 or not. But through our work with the Government, we are working to get a clear message that we can share soon, hopefully next week.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
Covid or chest infection?
Post-covid and asthma
Testing positive for covid 
Post covid asthma diagnoses 
Asthma and Covid Experiences Please!
