Breaking: Covid vaccines for teens rejected by government advisers – CityAM : CityAM
Government advisers have reportedly shot down plans to roll out an immunisation programme for 12 to 15 year olds.
Although the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has referred 200,000 children with underlying health conditions to get jabbed, experts decided that there was no overwhelming benefit of the vaccine for children, the Independent first reported.
The 200,000 under-16s are set to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, due to being considered ‘clinically vulnerable’.
The government is now expected to ask the UK’s four chief medical officers for a review to determine whether non-health factors may benefit children more, making the vaccine worth it – for example, missing out on school.
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Covid-19 positivity rates were highest in teenagers and young adults, in the week to 27 August, according to the Office for National Statistics.
However, hospital admissions and deaths remained highest among the elderly, a trend seen throughout the pandemic.
The risk of death for children not considered ‘high risk’, with underlying health conditions, has been extremely rare since the pandemic began in the country last year.
In deciding against a vaccine rollout for teens, the UK will have a bolstered supply for both the global vaccine sharing scheme COVAX as well as booster jabs for immunosuppressed adults.
The JCVI, which advises the government on its Covid vaccine strategy, set out the new recommendation for booster jabs separately from potential booster shot programmes, which health secretary Sajid Javid said the government is planning to begin separately in September.
Anyone over the age of 12 who was immunosuppressed at the time of their first or second dose of the Covid vaccine, including those with leukaemia, advanced HIV, or recent organ transplants, will be offered the extra dose.
Around half a million people in the UK are expected to receive a third booster shot.
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