Vaccine question

[JC17fj74]

Mr Hancock said: "This vaccine will not be used for children. It hasn't been tested on children. And the reason is that the likelihood of children having significant detriment if they catch Covid-19 is very, very low.

So children some be getting vaccinated?
How is it that children have the yearly Flue vaccine then? I'm not being ignorant I just can't work out how they get vaccinated for normal flu which is deemed important enough because of the complications if they get flu, but hey Covid vaccine isn't necessary when it's meant to be a lot worse than 'normal flu' 🤷🏻‍♀️

well for a start flu is more dangerous for children than covid. But probably more significantly atm none of the covid vaccines have been trialled or approved for use in

Rates of death from flu are actually higher than from Covid in people under a certain age (I believe something like 28) but the reason children get vaccinated for flu is because they are a major vector of transmission rather than the risk to themselves. As it is thought the role of children is lesser in the transmission of Covid and the vaccines are not proven to reduce spread there is no scientific basis to use these vaccines on children as neither the individual or societal benefits outweigh the cost (including of testing and approving the vaccine on children as this requires a different set of data) and potential side effects of the vaccine. A similar argument could probably be made for young adults but as the many of the costs have already been spent and the risk is slightly higher the balance has gone the other way.

Children weren’t given the flu injection until relatively recently. It takes a lot longer for vaccines to be trialled on children. Flu is also worse for the majority of children than covid is.