In a year marked by renewed public health campaigns and heartbreaking personal losses, the United Kingdom is grappling with the urgent question of how best to protect its citizens—especially its most vulnerable—from preventable infectious diseases. From innovative pop-up clinics in Brighton pubs to impassioned calls for expanded vaccine access following a tragic student death, the country’s approach to vaccination is under the microscope as winter sets in.
At The Bevy, a community pub nestled on Hillside in Brighton, the atmosphere is a little different this season. Instead of just the usual banter over pints, there’s a steady stream of locals rolling up their sleeves for flu and Covid-19 jabs. This is all part of a Sussex-wide NHS campaign to boost vaccination rates, particularly among those who might otherwise put off getting protected. According to NHS Sussex, 52% of eligible people—about 506,000 residents—have already received their free flu vaccination so far this winter. But health officials aren’t satisfied yet; they’re determined to reach even more.
Hollie Defries, lead nurse for Brighton & Hove Federation, explained the strategy: “The aim is to reach as many people as possible.” For some, the unconventional setting has made all the difference. Peter, classified as a vulnerable person, admitted, “I’d put it off and put it off, so this is quite convenient for me.” Penny, another local with long-term breathing difficulties, didn’t mince words: “I can’t afford to get sick. With breathing difficulties, it always affects my lungs. I make sure I do everything to keep as healthy as possible. Please do get the jabs if you can.”
Dr Amy Dissanayake, interim chief medical officer for NHS Sussex, emphasized the stakes. “Flu activity started earlier than expected this year, and Covid continues to pose a risk to older adults and people with weakened immune systems,” she told BBC Sussex. “Vaccination remains the most effective way to avoid serious illness and hospitalisation. As we approach a period of increased social contact, it is vital that eligible residents come forward for their winter vaccinations. Prioritising your health is one of the most important decisions you can make.”
Eligible residents can book their flu or Covid-19 vaccination through the NHS app, online, via their GP practice, or by calling 119. The message is clear: accessibility and convenience are key to boosting uptake and keeping communities safe.
But while flu and Covid-19 vaccines are widely available for eligible groups, the story is starkly different for another deadly disease—meningococcal type B meningitis (MenB). The devastating loss of 18-year-old Meg Draper, a first-year physiotherapy student at Bournemouth University, has brought national attention to what some are calling a critical gap in the UK’s vaccination program.
Meg was sporty, outgoing, and had already made a big impression at university, joining both swimming and netball teams. But just weeks into her studies, she contracted MenB and died in October 2025. Her parents, Helen and Lee Draper, were blindsided. Meg had been vaccinated at 14 against meningitis A, C, W, and Y strains during the coronavirus lockdown, and they believed their daughter was fully protected. “The way it was portrayed to us was, that it was the meningitis vaccination, we weren’t aware there was another one,” Helen Draper told BBC News. “We’ve spoken to hundreds of people who have reached out and we’re yet to find a single person that was aware. That really scared us because at first we thought we’d dropped the ball, that we’d missed something.”
The MenB vaccine, the only protection against the bacteria responsible for 82.6% of meningitis cases in the UK, is currently only available on the NHS for young children, who are seen as the most at risk. For older children and young adults, the vaccine costs about £220 privately—a price that many families can’t afford or don’t even know to consider. The Welsh government, like others across the UK, follows the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which concluded in 2014 that routine MenB vaccination for young adults was “not cost-effective.”
This policy has come under renewed scrutiny. University students, who often live and socialize in close quarters, are at higher risk of contracting meningitis because the bacteria spread easily through sneezing and coughing. Meg’s story is a painful illustration of this risk. “She had this zest for life that was compelling. We were in awe of her,” her mother recalled. “To think, she was only there for five weeks, but the amount of friends she had at university—we couldn’t get over how impactful she’d been in such a short space of time.”
Symptoms of meningitis can include severe headache, high temperature, vomiting, and a rash—sometimes progressing from mild to life-threatening in less than a day. With early diagnosis and antibiotic treatment, many people recover fully, but about one in four survivors faces long-term complications like amputation, deafness, epilepsy, or learning difficulties. Tragically, MenB can be fatal for as many as one in ten people affected, and as Dr Tom Nutt, chief executive of charity Meningitis Now, put it: “When it strikes it can kill within 24 hours.”
The Drapers, along with the National Union of Students UK (NUS), are now calling for the MenB vaccine or booster to be made available to young adults on the NHS. “The fact there is a vaccination available against MenB that could protect this group of young adults, we think that’s a bit of a tragedy,” Dr Nutt said. “Prevention is better than cure, it’s far better to protect to help healthy lives, to help keep families together and avoid the pain of bereavement and disability which is caused by meningitis. It’s a good investment in terms of keeping people healthy and saving lives.”
The NUS echoed these concerns, highlighting a lack of awareness among students and parents. “While we all expect the inevitable freshers flu, there are deadly viral strains also circulating which students need to be protected against, and aware of,” a spokesperson said. “The Meningitis B vaccine should be offered on the NHS—there should never be a cost barrier to life-saving vaccines.” Until that happens, the NUS urges universities and colleges to consider offering the vaccine directly to their students.
Bournemouth University, for its part, runs weekly walk-in clinics for vaccines against meningitis A, C, W, and Y, and advises students on both vaccination and symptoms. Following Meg’s death, her close contacts were offered antibiotics to prevent the spread of infection, and the university community has felt the loss deeply. “We advise all our students when they join us how they can get vaccinated against strains of meningitis and send them reminders throughout the year,” a university spokesperson said. “Our advice emphasises that they need to seek medical help immediately if they show any symptoms, even if they have had a vaccination.”
As winter illnesses circulate and the country reflects on the lessons of both public health innovation and personal tragedy, the debate over vaccine access and awareness is far from settled. For many, the hope is that stories like Meg’s will not only inspire grief, but galvanize action—ensuring that no more lives are lost to preventable disease.
