Submitted by: Mhairi Gowans
Date: 28 February 2021

In February [2021], once the government announced it would be starting vaccination for Group 6, charities became aware that the Government had taken many clinically vulnerable people off the vaccination list. This particularly affected asthmatics of whom millions had been off-boarded from priority.

A patient group formed on Facebook and then launched several Twitter events to raise awareness of this issue. This graphic pertained to the second event which I promoted on my Instagram account on the 28th of February. Each Twitter event resulted in the chosen hashtag trending (first hashtag was #AsthmaticsAtRisk, second hashtag was #VaccinesforAsthmatics. #flujabequalscovidjab and #asthmaticsunder50 were also later used).

Unfortunately while this received some press attention and celebrity support from Supernanny Jo Frost, as well as charity support from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation and the Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists, this issue has been largely ignored by the government leaving clinically vulnerable people vulnerable as society opens up.