Covid vaccines to be sold for £99 on high street - but plan branded 'unaffordable'

Boots will become the first retailer in the UK to offer a paid-for Covid vaccine from next week, with anyone over the age of 12 able to walk in off the high street and get vaccinated against Coronavirus - so long as they cough up £99.

Previously offered free by the NHS, the jabs handed out by the Covid vaccination program have been scaled back in the years following the pandemic. Now, only those with certain conditions or who are over the age of 75 are eligible to receive the vaccine on the health service, while others might now look to Boots to boost their immune system against covid-19.

The pharmacy giant will be offering customers the single-dose Pfizer jab at 50 locations up and down the UK. The cost of the vaccine, which some have questioned the affordability of, is said to reflect the cost of purchasing, storing, and delivering a new drug to high street pharmacies across the country.

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But, for many on social media, the high price of the jab is simply too much for something that was given to them for free by the NHS in recent years. Ramandeep Kaur said on X: "Is £99 really affordable? I think many people will struggle to find the money for the vaccine."

Many drew a parallel between the £18 flu jab and the £98.95 Pfizer vaccine, though, the flu vaccine was first invented in the 1930s and has been modified for successive variants ever since. While the Pfizer vaccine was first used by the UK in 2020 and is based off cutting-edge mRNA technology and has a complex multi-stage production process.

Professor Azeem Majeed, a GP, said on X: "The pharmacy chain Boots says it will begin selling private Covid-19 vaccines for £99 next