Concern at slow vaccine rollout among children
RISE IN INFECTIONS MAY LEAD TO ‘PERFECT STORM’ IN THE WINTER FOR NHS
THE spread of Covid-19 among children in England is fuelling a rise in cases nationally and causing concern among some scientists that vaccines are being rolled out in schools too slowly.
Covid-19 cases in Britain as a whole are much higher than in other European countries and are rising.
One survey last Friday (15) suggested that prevalence was at its highest level since January, with eight per cent of secondary school children infected.
Vaccination rates for the age group in England are lagging those in many European countries and even Scotland, which some scientists have attributed to mixed messaging around shots for children, a later start and inflexibility with the rollout.
The NHS set a target of offering all children vaccination shots by the school half-term break, which starts next week.
“The worry at the moment is it is clear the vaccination programme in 12- to 15-year-olds is not going very well,” Lawrence Young, a virologist at University of Warwick, said, adding that the spread of other viruses could lead to a “perfect storm” in the winter for the NHS if cases spread to older, more vulnerable adults.
“With all of what that means not only again for schools, but also for overwhelming the NHS... then the worry is that autumn and winter are going to get very, very messy.”
In England, the rollout has been done through schools, meaning the offer of a vaccine isn’t being made available to all eligible children at the same time.
In Scotland, by contrast, where 46.5 per cent of 12- to 15-year-olds have had a Covid shot, walk-in vaccination facilities are available, meaning children are not reliant on schools to get access to shots.
On Tuesday (19), health secretary Sajid Javid said England would change its policy in time for half-term.
“We will now be opening up the national booking service to all 12- (to) 15-year-olds to have their Covid vaccinations in existing national vaccination centres which will offer families more flexibility,” he told MPs.
Dr Brian Ferguson, of the University of Cambridge’s Division of Immunology, said while it was natural there would be a lower take-up in children, rollout to the age group would have benefitted from better planning.
Britain’s chief medical officers recommended last month that children aged 12 to 15 should be offered a Covid vaccine to help reduce disruption to their education.
Data released on Tuesday showed 209,000 children in state-funded schools were off for Covid-related reasons last Thursday (14), with 12.4 per cent of secondary school students absent that day.
As children and teachers miss school time with Covid, some believe the rollout started too late.
“The final approval to go ahead with this was about protecting education and we’re not doing that,” Young said.
Data released last Thursday showed that 28.8 per cent of children aged 12-17 had received a Covid-19 shot.
Whether or not vaccines prevent mild Covid and transmission in schools in light of the more contagious delta variant is one major point of difference between those who believe vaccinations should have begun earlier and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which says a deliberate and transparent process was crucial to maintaining trust.
Adam Finn, a JCVI member, said, “We shouldn’t imagine that somehow we missed the boat on some dramatic effect that would have been beneficial to children or everyone else, because the vaccines just don’t (prevent transmission) very efficiently, particularly with the delta variant.”
He added that as the risks of both infection and the shots were small, it was right that children and parents should be able to decide for themselves whether to get the shot. The focus should not be on the overall proportion who decide to take up the offer, he added.
“We allowed people to make their own decision in a rather marginal situation whether or not they wanted their children immunised.
“Those that did went ahead, which is fine. Those that didn’t didn’t go ahead, and that’s fine too.”