Children aged between five and 11 in England will be offered a Covid vaccine, the UK government has confirmed, after similar announcements from Wales and Scotland this week.
The move was recommended by the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which decided that the vaccination programme should be extended to younger children after lengthy discussions on the benefits and risks.
The vaccinations, described as a “non-urgent” offer by the health secretary, will be Pfizer/BioNTech. Stormont’s health minister, Robin Swann, also confirmed that Northern Ireland will mirror the move.
Sajid Javid said: “The NHS will prepare to extend this non-urgent offer to all children during April so parents can, if they want, take up the offer to increase protection against potential future waves of Covid-19 as we learn to live with this virus.”
While the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine for five- to 11-year-olds in December, with the body concluding the jabs were is safe and effective for this group, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) previously announced that only vulnerable children in this age group would be offered a Covid jab.
However, the pace of that rollout has been slow – despite the JCVI making the announcement in December, many vulnerable younger children have yet to receive their vaccination. A lack of paediatric doses has meant availability tended to initially be limited to settings with the capacity to use fractionated adult doses off-label.
The latest decision extends the Covid vaccination programme to all children aged between five and 11.
As with the vulnerable cohort, this wider group will be offered 10-microgram doses of the Covid jabs – a third of the amount used for adults.
The decision to extend Covid jabs to younger children has involved lengthy discussions.
While some scientists have argued they are necessary – citing concerns over high infection rates in schools, rising Covid-related hospitalisations in children and long Covid – others have stressed that the risk-benefit equation becomes finely balanced in younger age groups because Covid is generally a mild disease in childhood, long Covid is rarer, milder and less long-lasting than in adults, and Covid jabs are unable to prevent all transmission in any case.
It was announced in September last year that children aged between 12 and 15 would be offered a Covid jab. The programme was later extended to offer a second dose with some eligible for a booster, such as those in a clinical risk group. All 16- and 17-year-olds are eligible for two doses of a Covid jab and a booster.
Prof Azeem Majeed, head of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, welcomed the announcement. “The benefits of vaccination are much greater for older people than young children because of the higher risks from Covid-19 in the elderly. Nonetheless, the evidence does suggest a benefit in children also and it’s good to see the UK finally approve vaccines in five to 11-year olds, even if it has lagged behind many other countries in making this decision.”
However, he added that he predicted roll out would be slow. “Many parents will have been deterred by the previous messages from the JCVI and some UK paediatricians that vaccination is only of marginal benefit in younger children, in contrast to the much stronger endorsement in the USA for example,” he said.
Prof Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said that the latest evidence showed that vaccination in younger age groups is safe, but that the benefits were unlikely to be great. “The risk of severe disease and long Covid in this age group was always much lower than older age groups and given the high rate of prior infections these risks are probably even lower now,” he said. “So personally I would not advise vaccination in this age group but I would not stand in the way of any parent who wants their child vaccinated.”
Source: Guardian
