Parents must be fully informed on vaccine

SINCE the middle of March parents and guardians across Wales have been given the opportunity to vaccinate their five to 11-year-olds against coronavirus.

Health boards have been sending out appointment letters over the past few weeks inviting families and their young ones to attend one of the few mass vaccination centres that remain open.

However, since the rollout began only one in 10 children in this age group in Wales has actually had their first dose of the jab. That’s far slower progress than those in the higher age categories who turned up in their droves to be inoculated within the first six to eight weeks the vaccines were available.

In some ways this is perhaps unsurprising. It could be argued that the justification for vaccinating younger children against the virus is less clear-cut than those in the adult population. For a start, children without any health complications are much less likely to become unwell with Covid than the average adult. As the NHS Wales’ vaccination leaflet states, “very few” children go on to have severe disease, and those who do experience symptoms will only have them for a few days at most.

Secondly, for many parents – particularly with more than one young child – it’s not exactly easy to convince them to attend a vaccination centre in the first place. The effort of getting them there may outweigh any potential risks the virus might pose to them.

And thirdly, there are a few rare but very serious side-effects such as chest pain, shortness of breath and feelings of having a fast-beating, fluttering or pounding heart.

But on the whole, getting your child immunised against Covid does have its benefits not just for them, but for those around them. A comprehensive rollout of the vaccine would help to reduce education disruption which has blighted the past couple of years. It will also help to prevent onward transmission to others.

And let’s not forget that ‘ long Covid’ is still a real threat to children. There have been many reported cases of children suffering with terrible fatigue, long-lasting headaches stomach pains and difficulty eating. Long Covid Kids says it is currently supporting just under 6,000 families across the UK, with numbers rising steeply.

But the most important thing is that parents feel they have an informed choice about whether to let their children have the vaccine or not.

The benefit, as experts have already admitted, is marginal.