Urgently license and distribute preventative treatments to protect those still clinically extremely vulnerable to COVID-19
Why is this important?
Today there are over 3 million people in the UK who are still clinically extremely vulnerable to Covid. Not only do our underlying health conditions put us at greater risk for severe disease or death, immunosuppression can cause the Covid vaccines to be less effective. Not all of us are mounting immune response to vaccinations, even after four doses, and as of October 2021, 91% of us were still shielding, nearly two years into this pandemic.
Right now the only protection the government is offering us is post-Covid infection: We are being asked to take our chances of getting the disease, which may be deadly for many of us, before we can access antivirals or monoclonals to help our chances of survival. We need a vaccine equivalent that protects us proactively so we can go back to living our lives safely. Without this, we live an isolated and perilous existence.
Some other countries have already approved monoclonal antibody treatments such as AstraZeneca's Evusheld as prevention against infection for the immunosuppressed community. We ask that these be fully approved, distributed and provided as long-term prophylaxis treatment to the clinically vulnerable in the UK.
