CALLS TO GIVE KIDS THEIR SECOND JAB
Move ‘could stop 56,000 cases of teen long Covid’
CHILDREN should be offered second doses of Covid-19 vaccines because the benefits outweigh any risks, scientists say.
UK regulators have only approved single jabs for 12 to 17 year olds, unlike the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and much of Europe.
A study indicated up to 56,000 cases of long Covid may be prevented in children if they were double jabbed.
It is not clear how many of these cases would be avoided with just one dose.
Lead author Dr Deepti Gurdasani, of Queen Mary University of London, said: “This analysis shows on clinical risks alone, vaccination is warranted for 12 to 17 year olds in England.
“While we wait to understand the long-term effects of Covid-19 on children, the precautionary principle advocates for protecting all children from exposure to this virus and vaccination is a crucial part of that protection.”
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has so far only advised offering one dose of the Pfizer vaccine for 12 to 17 year olds.
Co-author Prof Martin McKee, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “The approach is completely out of line with that of advisers in many other countries so it really should explain why it thinks they are wrong.”
The US has fully vaccinated over 10 million under-18s and France has fully vaccinated more than 52% of its 12-17 year olds.
Researchers examined hospital admissions, deaths and long Covid over a 16-week period. As of September 15, around 680 out of every 100,000 10 to 19-year-olds got Covid-19 every week.
If this soars to 1,000 per week over 16 weeks, they estimate full vaccination of 12 to 17-year-olds will “avert 4,430 hospital admissions and 36 deaths”.
If cases plummet to 50 per week then “vaccination could avert 70 hospital admissions and two deaths over 16 weeks,” they added.
Cases of long Covid that could be included ranged from 8,000 to 56,000.
Dr Gurdasani said: “While children with pre-existing illnesses may be at greater individual risk, 60% of hospitalisations in under-18s in England have been children who do not have such conditions – suggesting considerable benefits for all children in reducing severe illness.”
The study found the benefits of a second jab outweigh the risks “unless case rates are sustainably low”.
However, Dr Alasdair Munro, from Southampton University, said: “This research does not attempt to qualify the difference between a single dose compared to two doses.
“This is current UK policy, made on the basis that a single dose offers the vast majority of the benefit of reductions of risk of hospitalisation and death, and avoids the worst of the potential adverse events.”