Should we be vaccinating A level students so they can take their exams?

[notevenat20]

In Israel they are vaccinating 16-18 year olds ahead of their exams www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-middle-east-55788922. Should we plan to do that too?

I'd be concerned about that - it hasn't been tested for that age group.

No. They have missed so much classroom learning they would be at an unfair disadvantage sitting the usual exam papers.

Wasn't at least one of the vaccines tested in over 16s?

They have missed so much classroom learning they would be at an unfair disadvantage sitting the usual exam papers.

Who would it be unfair for? Do you mean the average would be low?

Vaccination should happen in the priority order that has been determined according to vulnerabilities.
A level students are unlikely to be admitted to hospital or die of covid. They are therefore not going to be bumped up the queue

Vaccination should happen in the priority order that has been determined according to vulnerabilities.
A level students are unlikely to be admitted to hospital or die of covid. They are therefore not going to be bumped up the queue

Well we decide the queue order. I wouldn't mind if they come just after 9.

I hope we do get to the 16plus age group, certainly the year 13’s before they all go off to uni for the first time. I’d certainly give permission for my 17 year old to have the vaccine

The exams have been cancelled so I expect schools and 6th form colleges have already put in a lot of work to adapting to that (not a teacher but am sure that must be the case).
So it's a moot point as you cannot expect schools to have to adapt yet again to exams if it even made sense to vaccinate that age groups. Exams aren't the only way to assess students. Vaccinating the vulnerable is key to saving their lives and getting everyone, not just 6th formers, back to some sort of normality. With apologies to parents of 6th formers who don't agree with me but we all need to take a much broader view.

No as it’s isn’t in their best health interests.

No. Exams have been cancelled.

No, because it's going to mess with their mental health even more after they said they were cancelled. This age group has suffered so, so much. Every single 16-18 year old in the country has to be suffering depression and anxiety at the moment. I don't believe there are any who are not.
They need as much stability as they can get in very, very uncertain times.

If the government had held fire on cancelling and adopted a wait and see approach for a few weeks, then you'd have a point.

I think it's hard to argue the case for teens when people like police and prison officers need the vaccination more.

No. There are far more vulnerable groups which should take priority.

Why would vaccinating them make any difference to whether they can take exams or not?

No.

Exams are one of the settings where there is natural social distancing so I'd have thought lower risk than normal school, to be honest, especially if everyone wears a mask. They're not supposed to be talking either, which would reduce risk.

If you had good ventilation, exams could be pretty low risk. They did them last year in Germany IIRC without a spike in cases.

Whether they should take exams at all given disrupted education is another question.

No because schools closed so missed lesson time!

Need schools to be open first,

@notevenat20

So I (at 49) so only slight less risk than the 50 year olds they are already vaccinating) should wait for 16 year olds to be vaccinated, plus their teachers only to then be infected by my dd (the vaccine may allow people to be infected by assymptomatic, so can still transmit the disease!)

The 16-18's in Israel aren't bumping anyone out of the queue. They are currently vaccinating all over 40's and have already done frontline/emergency workers and teachers. The point of vaccinating teens is to get them back into school asap so they can study there (rather than on zoom) for their exams in the summer.

Definitely not now.

Exams off - maybe some external assessment (thanks Gormless Gav) - maybe CAGs.

Year 13 are under enough stress and suddenly saying its okay kids we will jab you so you can sit exams will tip some right over the edge.

No, they don't need it.

Israel are way, way ahead of the rest of the world in vaccination because they pretty much offered up their whole population as a clinical trial for pfizer. So they had many of the advance doses before it was even tested.

No. The risk of somebody dying from Covid is more impirtant than A levels and you know exams in the rest of the UK.
The vaccine was only tested in those 18+. But 16-18 year old with CEV will get it.

@bluebluezoo Israel started vaccinating on December 19, after the Pfizer vaccine was approved earlier in December. They are way way ahead of the rest of the world because of their ultra efficient health maintenance organisations: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcareinn_Israel

Not sure they should be vaccinating them so they can take exams, but they should be vaccinating them as they turn 18 so they can go to university (or work and earn money and pay income tax) in September.