The taxpayer faces a bill of £250 million for a vaccination programme that is expected to save fewer than 200 lives.The shingles vaccine will have a negligible impact on circulation of the virus, will prevent few deaths and will benefit less than 1 per cent of its targeted age group.
One GP said he was “astonished” at the NHS’s justification of the rollout of the treatment for the over-70s.
The Department of Health says that the vaccine is cost-effective on the basis of its probability of preventing shingles, despite cutting the odds of developing the disease in pensioners from only 0.9 per cent to 0.5 per cent.
A spokesman admitted that “the overall effect on transmission is negligible” and that the Zovastax vaccine is “not aimed to prevent deaths”. Just one in 1,000 sufferers dies of shingles.
The department refused to confirm the price of the vaccine, but The Daily Telegraph understands that it is costing the NHS as much as £55 per shot — nearly six times the price of the £7.50 flu jab.
