What I’m getting from this is that the NHS has been shafted so much that they can’t even give these out for free or even at a heavily discounted rate. They even raised the lower age limit from 50 to 65 so there’s even less people able to get it for free.
I’d be fine with paying for a booster, but £100 seems a bit steep for tiny bit of liquid in a tube. What does it think it is? Printer ink?
The flu jab’s normally less than £15, depending on where you get it (and £0 if you’re old or vulnerable enough).
@fakeman_pretendname @merridew
None of them are £0
We buy them in bulk, and pay for most through general taxation, efficiently.The COVID vaccines are made by actually more expensive and difficult techniques/ologies, which are available in new facilities of more limited extent.
Expect the products of those techs to become more plentiful and cheaper, and the difference may get below the order of magnitude. Not to parity.
That’s the price for the US I think. It doesn’t give a price for the UK. Google tells me that flu jabs in the US cost around $70 without insurance. Like you said, flu jabs here are £10-15 for those not eligible for free ones. If the covid jabs follow the same pattern they shouldn’t be more than £20. At least I really hope that’s the case, £100 a shot will surely out-price 50%+ of people that pay for flu jabs.
NHS pays Pfizer $22-27 per dose (and that is claimed to be “most expensive” price) so can’t imagine it being more than £30
You are right - I clearly missed the “in the US” bit of the paragraph!
[Edit] or I read the TLDR bot version, which omitted this information
Tbf, even the full version is slightly unclear unless you read it carefully.
Edit: I’m the same person you replied to, I just forgot to switch from mod account to normal account.
For sale?
What better way to decide who lives and who dies than the invisible hand of the free market? \s
How’s this any different to flu at this point? I’ll admit, vulnerable people should get them for free like flu jabs, but everyone doesn’t need a free booster anymore.
Are flu shots not offered for free to the elderly in the UK? Do they have to actually buy them?
Yes, they are offered for free. If you are elderly, pregnant, immunosuppressed, live/care for vulnerable people, or have a variety of other health conditions including asthma, you get offered a free flu jab every autumn on the NHS .
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/flu-influenza-vaccine/
Yes, they are free. Same as COVID for that age range.
Free for elderly, vulnerable and primary school
Didn’t various countries massively fund these vaccine programs? I’m hoping the vaccine price is marginally above the actual cost of making them but something tells me probably not…
The current criteria for qualifying for an NHS winter COVID vaccine are far stricter than the criteria for the NHS flu vaccine.
If you are asthmatic, you can easily be considered vulnerable enough to need the flu vaccine, but still not qualify for the COVID vaccine.
