WHAT ABOUT CHILDREN – WILL THEY NEED TO GET THE BOOSTER AS WELL?

NO, BUT it is possible that children under 12 could soon get their first vaccine.

Initially, children aged 12 to 17 were only being offered one dose of vaccine, while those under 12 got nothing.

In November, the Government announced that teenagers aged 16 to 17 could now get a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, 12 weeks or more after their first dose. But this decision was taken before the arrival of the Omicron variant.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the Government’s vaccine advisory group, has been hesitant to green-light vaccines for the younger age groups. This is because they are generally viewed as not at risk from the virus, and only a handful of children have been hospitalised since the beginning of the pandemic, the majority of whom had an underlying health condition such as severe asthma.

Meanwhile, there have been several hundred reported cases of heart inflammation in young adults following vaccination. The condition, called myocarditis, is rare and the majority of sufferers appear to recover quickly, but it has led JCVI members to question whether the risks of vaccinating children outweigh the benefits.

However, speaking at a Downing Street press conference last Monday, following the discovery of the Omicron variant, June Raine, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said it was ‘very likely’ that an assessment of whether it would be safe for children as young as five to get a Pfizer jab would be concluded before Christmas.

If the MHRA does say the vaccines are safe for younger children, then it would be up to the JCVI to decide if this age group receives a jab.

A major study published in The Lancet medical journal in September suggested that vaccinating younger children could further reduce hospitalisations and deaths across all age groups by as much as 60 per cent.