Availability of flu vaccine
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Further to the reminder of the use of first line flu vaccines in today’s COVID-19 Vaccination Bulletin that has been circulated, please note the following:
- QIV-HD vaccine for the >65-year-old cohort is available to order and to be supplied via Sanofi at this time, so in the absence of aQIV being available, please place an in-season order for QIV-HD
- Please note the statement of amendment to the annual flu letter advising of the inclusion of QIV-HD as a fist line recommended vaccine for >65yos in this year’s programme.
- As per the annual flu letter, and as recommended by the JCVI, every effort should be made to use the best available flu vaccines; second line vaccines should only be used if all attempts to secure the recommended first line vaccines have failed
- On review of our vaccination activity for the >65-year-old cohort, and aQIV stock that has been delivered to London providers, it is clear that there is significant surplus of aQIV stock available in the system that has not been used
- We are aware that this stock may not be sitting in the right place to be able to respond to local demand, and therefore where possible please make every effort to collaborate with system colleagues to identify any opportunity to access aQIV/QIV-HD stock, in accordance with the relevant regulations, and in line with existing and potential collaboration agreements
- To note, the levels of vaccination activity in the >65-year-old cohort was unprecedented in the first two weeks of the programme, but this most recent weekly data shows this activity has now settled to within levels seen in previous seasons. The unprecedented levels of activity in the first two weeks of the programme are likely to have driven higher than usual levels of in-season ordering of the relevant vaccines, with the result of depleted stock via the manufacturers.
If there is any evidence of QIV-HD not being available for delivery, then we would ask that you please contact your SVOC team so that this can be escalated accordingly.