Covid vaccination for UK children: what has been approved?
The UK government’s vaccine advisers have issued new guidance on Covid vaccinations for young people in light of the rapidly spreading Omicron variant. The advice opens up Covid vaccinations for children as young as five and extends the booster programme to more teenagers.
What has been decided?
Covid vaccination has been approved for children aged five to 11 after a safety and effectiveness review by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The approval has paved the way for the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to recommend Covid jabs for about 330,000 at-risk children in the age group.
Who is eligible?
Children aged five to 11 who are in a clinical risk group or who are a household contact of someone who is immunosuppressed are now eligible to receive a Covid jab.
Which vaccine will they receive? Eligible at-risk five- to 11-year-olds will be offered the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at one-third of the dose (10 micrograms) used for adults. The recommendation is for a primary course of two doses given eight weeks apart.
What about the booster programme?
The JCVI also recommended an extension of the booster programme, with a full 30 microgram Pfizer/BioNTech booster now recommended for three specific groups: 16- to 17-yearolds; 12- to 15-year-olds who are in a clinical risk group, or who live in a house with someone who is immunosuppressed; and 12- to 15-yearolds who are severely immunocompromised and have already had a third primary dose of vaccine. The boosters should be given no sooner than three months after the last shot of their primary course.
What will the vaccines achieve? While the majority of children aged five to 11 are at very low risk of severe Covid, some children with underlying health conditions have a higher risk that can be reduced with vaccination. For those who have already had a primary course of Covid vaccine, the booster will provide added protection against Omicron.
What about healthy children?
The JCVI, which advises on how vaccines should be used once they are approved, expects to issue further advice on Covid vaccines for healthy five- to 11-year-olds in due course.
The group wants to review more data before making a recommendation, including evidence of how much protection children acquire against Omicron after a Covid infection.
Are the vaccines safe in children? More than 5m doses of the Pfizer vaccine have already been given to fiveto 11-year-olds in the US alone. Based on that rollout and evidence from around the world, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has concluded that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the known and potential risks of Covid. The CDC has recorded nearly 2m cases of Covid among the 28 million children aged five to 11 in the country. The virus generally causes mild disease in young people, but Covid remains one of the top 10 causes of death among five- to 11-year-olds. In November, the European Medicines Agency came out in favour of using the Pfizer vaccine for those in the same age group after a randomised clinical trial children.
Are the side-effects the same in children as in adults?
They tend to be. The most common side-effects in children are a sore arm from the injection, tiredness, headache, achy muscles and joints, and sometimes fever, but these typically clear up within a couple of days.
When will the vaccines be available?
The NHS will announce when it can offer the shots, potentially in the next few days, but its primary focus at the moment getting more booster shots into adults.
What are other countries doing? The US medical regulator approved the Pfizer/BioNTech shot for five- to 11year-olds in November, clearing the way for millions of healthy children to receive a Covid vaccine. The children are given a third of the dose used for adults. Europe has also pressed ahead with vaccinating children in the age group. France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece and Hungary are all offering the jabs in the hope of reducing the spread of the virus while keeping schools open.