Western Daily Press (Saturday)
> A Year 11 pupil gets tested prior to returning to school next week at The Wey Valley Academy in Weymouth.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI ) has announced that it is not recommending mass vaccination of 12 to 15 year olds.
COVID-19 jabs for healthy children aged between 12 and 15 are not being recommended by the Government’s vaccine advisers.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has announced that it is widening the limited rollout to more children in this age bracket who have underlying health conditions.
But it is not recommending mass vaccination of 12 to 15-year-olds.
Coronavirus presents a very low risk for healthy children, and the JCVI has determined the benefit of vaccinating them is only marginal in terms of their health.
The committee decided under its precautionary approach that the benefit is not large enough to support their mass vaccination from a purely health perspective.
The JCVI investigated the extremely rare events of inflammation of the heart muscle, known as myocarditis, after Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
The condition can result in short periods of hospital observation, followed by typically swift recoveries, but the JCVI has concluded the medium to long-term outcomes are still uncertain and more follow-up time is needed to get a clearer picture.
The jabs programme is being extended from what had been considered the most at-risk children to include those with chronic major heart, lung, kidney, liver and neurological conditions.
It means about 200,000 more children will be invited for vaccines.
The decision comes exactly a week after the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed preparations were under way to ensure the NHS was ready to offer coronavirus jabs to all 12 to 15-year-olds in England from early September.
The department had said it wanted to be “ready to hit the ground running”.
Ministers are expected to now seek extra advice on the wider benefits of vaccinating 12 to 15-year-olds, with the UK’s four chief medical officers being asked to lead this process.
The review will not consider any benefits adults may experience due to having children vaccinated, but rather will focus on areas outside the JCVI’s remit.
This would include lost education time due to Covid-related absences, either through sickness or being sent home from school.
It is expected to take several days. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he is “grateful” for the expert advice from the committee, adding that he and other health ministers from across the UK have written to the chief medical officers to “ask that they consider the vaccination of 12 to 15-year-olds from a broader perspective, as suggested by the JCVI”.
He added: “We will then consider
The upshot is that this would make it more difficult during the autumn term and beyond to guard against educational disruption caused by transmission of the virus GEOFF BARTON
the advice from the chief medical officers, building on the advice from the JCVI, before making a decision shortly.”
A school leaders’ union is “disappointed” that Covid-19 vaccines for healthy children aged between 12 and 15 are not being recommended by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “We are pleased that coronavirus vaccinations will be offered to more children with health vulnerabilities and welcome the extra reassurance this will give to these young people and their families.
“However, we are disappointed that the JCVI has decided against recommending Covid vaccinations in general to children aged between 12 and 15.
“We understand that this decision has been made after making an assessment of the balance of risks and with all the available evidence, and we respect that decision.
“Nevertheless, the upshot is that this would make it more difficult during the autumn term and beyond to guard against educational disruption caused by transmission of the virus.”
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said: “The decision by JCVI today will be considered by chief medical officers of the four nations next week, who will be able to take into account the wider issues of disruption to education and wider community transmission.
“If the decision not to vaccinate is upheld by the chief medical officers, this makes additional safety mitigations in schools all the more important.
“Sadly, in taking away so many safety measures last term, without replacing them with others, the Government has left schools open to another rise in case counts – which will mean many children and staff missing school if they test positive.”
Earlier yesterday a separate group of scientists said all young people aged 12 and over should be offered a vaccine, as they warned that allowing mass infection of children is “reckless”.
They wrote to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson alongside some parents, carers and educational staff to express their concerns about the impact of the pandemic on education.
In an open letter published in The BMJ, they state: “England’s policies mean that we will soon have a large susceptible population with high prevalence of infection mixing in crowded environments with hardly any mitigations.”
They said children have suffered “significant harms” in the pandemic, including from long Covid, and added: “Allowing mass infection of children is therefore reckless.”
Research led by University College London and Public Health England and published this week found that as many as one in seven children who get coronavirus could have symptoms almost four months later.
But lead author Professor Sir Terence Stephenson said he feels “reassured” by the data, which he said shows it is “nowhere near what people thought in the worst-case scenario”.