Frontline workers should be first in vaccine queue | Letters

Dr Richard Lawson argues for the need to prioritise frontline workers, Dr Hugh Adler praises clinical trial volunteers, and Heidi Chow says patents must be suspended so all countries can access the Covid vaccine

NHS staff no longer top priority to receive coronavirus vaccine" (Report, 3 December). This is because the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises that the first priority should be prevention of mortality, and to do this they have opted for immediate protection of very vulnerable, elderly people in care homes, rather than general prevention of mortality by using the vaccine to reduce the reproduction rate (R-number) of the virus.

JCVI did model the use of the vaccine to interrupt transmission of the virus in society, but decided this would only take place when a majority of the general population had been vaccinated, which would take many months to come about. It appears that they did not model giving the vaccine to potential super-spreaders, to people who encounter scores or even hundreds of other people during the course of their working day - people like doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, teachers, police officers, shop workers, delivery drivers and many other groups who keep the real economy running. The key point is that these workers are at increased risk both of contracting and transmitting the disease.