Take up of vaccine in 12-15 yo is as low as 10%

[Mellowfruitfulnessy]

Guardian story on the low take-up of vaccines in teens.

I had wondered if this issue would arise. All the (normally intelligent) teens I know are really anti-vax. Strong belief it renders you infertile. I guess a lot of this must be social media influencing.

Hardly anyone showed up for the vax clinic at dc school. In the end they made all the teens talk to the nurse but the take up was almost zero. This must be happening elsewhere too. Any other experiences? It’s really worrying and I don’t know how it will be addressed. I also wonder how it will impact families wanting to travel abroad next year.

[SecretKeeper1]

My kids said about half of their classmates got jabbed. No idea if that’s representative of the whole school though.

[Waxonwaxoff0]

It's not worrying. It's up to them what they choose to do with their own bodies.

[Mellowfruitfulnessy]

The risks clearly don’t “far outweigh the benefits”. Where do you get that idea/stats from please?

[Grapesoda7]

Both of my teens want the jab but there's been no mention from school when it will be available to them. There's probably a lot of teens that just havnt been able to have it yet.

[Thelgeden]

Good. There's absolutely no need for teens to have it. And no, I'm not antivaxx, my DC have had all their childhood vaccinations.

[Tsuro]

Quite a few won’t be able to have it as they have had covid in the last month - that’s the case for my child and many of her peers as it’s rife at school at the moment.

[Horst]

Our schools has been pushed back a month now for both flu and covid so end of November. I’m going to guess. Most of the parents I’ve spoken to have said their child won’t be/doesn’t want to have it.

[Hapoydayz]

My DD's school isn't planned to have the jabs until next week so I imagine a lot are waiting for the day they are offered it at school.

[herecomesthsun]

Our school will only have access to vaccinations in November. Take up is expected to be high

[Wellbythebloodyhell]

It's not been offered at my dc school yet so I can't comment on what the % take up is. However in my ds peer group quite a few have decided they will opt out when the time comes most common reason being they've had covid recently therefore having some natural immunity already. As immunity wanes with this vaccine i can understand that reasoning especially when they're only being offered technically half the recommended dose.
Take up may have been higher if we knew there was a long lasting/lifetime immunity like there is with some other vaccines we have .
My ds hasn't had covid yet and has decided against the vaccine so he's technically a sitting duck at the moment but that's his choice to make I'd support him either way

[herecomesthsun]

PS access to walk-in centres would be great and I note take-up has been much higher, funnily enough, in areas where young people can actually get vaccinated if they choose?

[MaxiMini]

Aren't a lot of countries requiring over 12s to be fully vaccinated? One doesn't cut it so either way travelling abroad will potentially be an issue

[Geamhradh]

The programme has only just started though for that age group.
Fingers crossed that they aren't brainwashed by the lies being spouted about risks v benefits.

[Cloudbaser]

Move to Scotland!

[zafferana]

That's because most teens can't bloody get it! Loads of kids I know would've had it over the summer, if it had been offered, but my DS's school isn't offering it until mid-Nov. The school roll-out programme can't cope. They're supposed to be doing flu, HPV, the teenage booster and now they've had Covid added to the list and it's a complete cock-up! Let them go to walk in centres FGS and the govt might find that take up is higher!

[InTheLabyrinth]

People who haven't had it round here:
Those whose parents didnt return the consent form within 24 hrs of it existing
Those whose parents didnt consent
Those kids that didnt consent, even if their parents did
Those off with covid
Those who have had covid in the past month
Those who are at the end of the list, and they ran out of vaccine (about 20% of the school)

It would be quite easy to get to a fairly low uptake with all the above, and even then, not all schools have started the program yet afaik. So if the guardian have done it on total numbers of that age group vaccinated, I'm not surprised its that low.

[noblegiraffe]

Bollocks misleading stats.

Take-up of the vaccine in my school and my DS's school is zero. Why? Because they've cancelled the vaccine due to staff shortages.

The Guardian should get off its journalistic arse and ask how many teens have even been offered the jab.

[zafferana]

The Guardian is full of shite anyway. Any opportunity they get they want to have a pop at the govt.

[herecomesthsun]

@Pru24

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

But they didn't say the risks outweighed the benefits

they said the health benefits outweighed the risks (but not enough to roll out a vaccine programme)

I agree however that the messaging was pretty appalling and personally I think they should have got together with the CMOs and approved a proper plan back in July.

There is no evidence that vaccines cause infertility (there is on the contrary very good evidence that some viruses definitely cause infertility)

[Wakemeuuuup]

My son should be getting his soon. No idea how many of his year are/ aren't having it.

I'm more worried because the anti-vac crowd (including Piers Corbyn) were demonstrating outside a local school last week, shouting at the poor kids trying to just get to school. I hope they don't show up at my kids' school

[Geamhradh]

@Pru24

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Not true.
The JCVI said based on medical evidence alone, they couldn't recommend the vaccine. Despite the benefits outweighing the risks.
Since they (as a body) are a) not made up wholly of medical experts b) refusing to release the minutes of their meetings c) currently under scrutiny after revelations that at least one member retweets anti Vax propaganda and has proven links to far right conspiracy theorists, I'd be wary of taking on board much of what they said.
Thankfully, the final decision to vaccinate was taken by the Chief Medical Officers who are experts.

[Geamhradh]

@Wakemeuuuup

My son should be getting his soon. No idea how many of his year are/ aren't having it.

I'm more worried because the anti-vac crowd (including Piers Corbyn) were demonstrating outside a local school last week, shouting at the poor kids trying to just get to school. I hope they don't show up at my kids' school

Yes. My friend is a teacher and her HT has received all manner of threats.
Despicable ignorant yobs.