Covid-19 vaccination for medical students: the grey area

• Published in: BMJ (Online) Vol. 372; p. n261
• Main Author: Nabavi, Nikki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BMJ Publishing Group LTD 28.01.2021
• Subjects: Colleges & universities; Committees; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - diagnosis; COVID-19 - immunology; COVID-19 - prevention & control; COVID-19 - virology; COVID-19 vaccines; Healthcare Disparities - statistics & numerical data; Hospitals; Humans; Immunization; Medical personnel; Medical schools; Medical students; Occupational health; Occupational Health - statistics & numerical data; Occupational Health - trends; Physicians; SARS-CoV-2 - genetics; SARS-CoV-2 - immunology; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; State Medicine - organization & administration; Students, Medical - statistics & numerical data; Trusts; United Kingdom - epidemiology; Vaccination; Vaccination - ethics; Vaccination - standards; Vaccines; Workers; Workforce; United Kingdom; United Kingdom > UK; England
• DOI: 10.1136/bmj.n261
• ISSN: 1756-1833

Responding to an individual student’s enquiry about vaccine eligibility, staff at the University of Manchester Medical School said in an email: “The key thing is that students are to be treated as staff in the NHS. Another gap in which students are lost is in the definition of a “key worker.” Since the start of the vaccine rollout in the UK on 8 December 2020, there have been calls by the BMA for “equitable access and prioritisation of the covid-19 vaccine within the healthcare workforce,”3 with health and social care workers second on the priority list after residents in care homes for older adults and their carers, and people of 80 and over.4 When the new academic year began in Autumn 2020, unlike some of their peers on non-practical courses, medical students in the latter years of their course returned to the wards to continue their learning. The students shared that they did not feel comforted by this information, as there has been no system in place to keep track of who has been offered the vaccine and who has not thus far. *As of 21 January 2021, some students at Wythenshawe Hospital and University of Nottingham medical school have been invited to book vaccination appointments. 1 Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.