‘Speed up jabs to end kids’ nightmare’
by Dan Hall
A MUM with an at-risk daughter has told of how living through the Covid crisis until her girl got her vaccine was “her biggest nightmare, chilling me to the bone”.
Kate Skelton spoke as desperate parents called on the Government to speed up jabs for clinically vulnerable five to 11-year-olds.
Just a handful have been vaccinated – despite jabs being approved three weeks ago. And among them is Kate’s seven-yearold daughter Annabelle, who was in intensive care before Christmas with a cold.
She has cerebral palsy, respiratory conditions and learning disabilities, and falls into three clinically vulnerable categories – but she only got her shot after her family doctor insisted.
Kate, 39, of Bromley, south-east London, said: “Catching a simple cold can leave Annabelle fighting for her life in intensive care. So Covid-19 was literally my biggest nightmare, chilling me to the bone.”
Charities now want the Government speed up the roll-out. Some 330,000 vulnerable children have been waiting for the protection of a vaccine since the pandemic took grip almost two years ago.
Proactive
On December 22, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said five to 11s with clinical vulnerabilities would be offered two Pfizer jabs. The same measure was approved for kids in the age group who live with someone who is immunosuppressed.
But the few who have been able to have a jab usually got it because their GPS pushed for it. Una Summerson of charity Contact, which helps families with disabled children, said: “We’ve heard from a handful of parents that their high-risk children are starting to receive the vaccine – but this seems limited to families who’ve been contacted by proactive GP surgeries.“
The Department of Health did not give an update on precisely when the rollout would begin but referred to comments by Health Secretary Sajid Javid in December that doses of the Pfizer paediatric vaccine would start to arrive in the UK from mid-january.
An NHS spokesman said it was “on course to roll out paediatric doses to five to 11s who are at risk or household contacts of immunosuppressed contacts this month.”