School pupils vaccinated from September

[Totalbeach]

This is in lots of papers today. Such as:

www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/19274021.secondary-school-pupils-set-get-covid-jab-september/

And:

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/02/nhs-england-draws-up-plan-to-give-covid-jabs-to-children-12-and-over

What’s your reaction?

Mine is that I 100% won’t be allowing my children to be vaccinated.

In the whole pandemic so far, 12 children under 15 have died in the U.K. That increases to 32 in the under 20s. The mortality rate is vanishingly tiny. A huge percentage of kids don’t even get symptoms at all.

The government has assured us till they are blue in the face that schools are safe and that children don’t spread it so it will be interesting to see what kind of enormous gaslighting they attempt to pull off to persuade parents they now need to vaccinate their kids.

The long term effects of the vaccines are totally unknown and recent events with AZ have proved rather horribly that even after a vaccine is rolled out, serious effects can come to light. Including events that disproportionately affect certain age groups.

I’m fully vaccinated (including first Covid vaccine) as are my kids but there is no way I’d let them be vaccinated in September. With any of the vaccines.

Vaccines can trigger autoimmune responses and conditions.

So can viruses, can't they?

I will get DD13 vaccinated. It's the right thing to do for her and for the wider population.
I dont think for a minute it's all going to be over in June. Clearly neither do the government. I genuinely cannot bear my DD to miss anymore school
Like everyone else her age, she has missed summer term of year 7 and spring term year 8.

If it stops then being in isolation every few weeks then I’m all for it.

My children will not be getting it and I don't let them get the flu vaccines either.
I weigh up the pros of cons of the illnesses Vs injecting/spraying them with medication.
In both of these I believe the illness is the lesser risk to them.
Completely personal choice though and I judge people who try and push their opinions onto others regarding things like this, we all need to do what we feel is best for our own families.

spectrum I imagine the vaccinations will happen in school, so DC who don’t get it will be fairly public.
The kids will talk about it until their jaws fall apart.
The parents will talk about until their jaws fall apart.
The teachers will talk about until their jaws fall apart.
And if a kid catches Covid and bursts a bubble the other parents will draw their own conclusions, especially if child in question clearly did not have the vax.

I also think there will be some activities unvaccinated DC won’t take part in. Which will further ID them.
Like I say, glad I’m not a parent to school age kids.

I actually understand why parents wouldn’t vaccinate their children. The messaging here has clearly been ‘your children have a minuscule, minuscule chance of being harmed by covid’ - so why would they do it? I’m curious to see how the chief medical / scientific officers will pitch this proposition.

Maybe they don’t want schools to become a petri dish for coronavirus infections, and for the risk of the virus mutating in such a way that it starts to target younger people (the only susceptible portion of the population remaining).

@Alonim I’m a teacher - every class I’ve taught has had a very high uptake of flu vax in lots of different schools.

@Totalbeach the flu vaccine changes every year to cope with different strains of flu.

I also think there will be some activities unvaccinated DC won’t take part in. Which will further ID them

That is not okay. I really don't know how we ended up here.

I am a big vaccination fan but am still weighing up vaccinations for kids. Until I see enough final trials data I wouldn't make a final discussion.

Saying that my then 8 year old got covid at the beginning of the pandemic. He only had it mildly. Then two weeks after his symptoms died down he got a terrible cough. It was the worse sounding cough I have ever seen a child have. Long continuous coughing fits that affected his breathing. He really suffered. Our GP gave him an inhaler and after a month the cough disappeared. However it isn't something I would want one of my kids to go through again. So will probably make the vaccination decision for the 15 year old easier.

I think the 15 year old will end up telling be what to decide anyway So long as I can't find any serious issues I will go along with that.

The two adult kids can definitely do their own thing. I just give them facts. One works in hospitality and can't wait to be jabbed. The other is more hesitant and says he will decide once he get the text. Told him that is fine. He is autistic so these things are very worrying for him.

I've got DC, both aged 11 but will be 12 later this year so in theory would be eligible.

Normally, I'm very pro-vax and they have the flu fax administered nasally.

I've just had my second AZ dose and been really ill with it. I've spent the last week in and out of hospital, needed blood thinners and a CT scan. I was totally pro-vax and not worried about the side effects so it's been a massive shock - I don't know what I'll do if we have to have boosters. This last week has been scary as hell.

My DC are both autistic. Ignoring the fact they can't tolerate a needle injection, I don't think I could in good faith be positive about them having the vaccine. They're home educated (recent change - previously were at school) so their risk is far less, and their contact with others very low.

The variants and more DC starting to get ill plus long COVID is worrying but I think because of our lifestyle, it's not just worth the risk yet.

I know these vaccines don't get approved unless they're safe, but with all the evidence plus my own experiences, it's clear that they don't know all the ins and outs as they would normally.

I know this might be trivial in the scale of things, but I can't see how we will get family holidays abroad until children are vaccinated. I don't think I'd be comfortable taking an unvaccinated child on a plane.

@ExhaustedFlamingo surely there would be no suggestion of you having a booster after that - you've had a serious adverse reaction.

Max I’m thinking of lots of the voluntary work my DC did via school - care homes, schools for the profoundly disabled, music for those in a hospice.
I cant see unvaccinated people - whatever their age - being allowed in there for sometime.

Also school trips abroad.

Also my DC had teachers with cancer and other health issues over the years. You can’t just sack them and their employer has to protect them surely?

@Justajot

I know this might be trivial in the scale of things, but I can't see how we will get family holidays abroad until children are vaccinated. I don't think I'd be comfortable taking an unvaccinated child on a plane.

I would be.

Also my DC had teachers with cancer and other health issues over the years. You can’t just sack them and their employer has to protect them surely?

Those teachers would have equally been at risk of flu yet no children were ever singled out or excluded due to their flu vaccine status.
As I said previously, children should not be used as human shields for adults. It's completely wrong.

Re. travel abroad, whether school trips or family holidays, what seems to be mooted is either vaccination or test. Certainly testing children will bump up holiday costs so I suppose it's up to parents if they want to have their children jagged to save a few hundred quid on their summer holidays.

I will have my children vaccinated against it.

Max I notice you left out the top part of my post about voluntary work with vulnerable people.

Have you looked into the science behind the pfizer vaccine? It’s fascinating and links to genome testing that we can now do for cancer patients to see if they’d benefit from chemo or not so we can give patients appropriate treatment knowing it’ll work. This isn’t science they’ve just plucked out the air in the last 12 months!

My dc will be vaccinated in be same way they get the flu vaccine. All the doctors at work have been discussing this and all were openly happy for their dc to have it so I’d advise parents to speak to doctors rather than random people on the internet.

If it were my choice then no. But they’re teens so will decide for themselves.
I’m not going to have the vaccine, their dad is...so not sure what they’ll decide.

I think it spectacularly unlikely that vaccines will be compulsory under any circumstances either for children or adults, in the U.K. anyway.

If vaccines for children are recommended then it will be once the evidence has been assessed and it has been established that, based on the available evidence, the benefits outweigh the risks in that particular age group. That information will also be available for the public to consider.

I can't see how any informed decision can be made at the moment as the situation is entirely hypothetical.

HelloMissus did they check each child's flu vaccination status before they were allowed to undertake the voluntary work?

Great.
They have had many vaccines already and why not this one too.

Yes will have it

So you'll believe what the government tells you if you happen to agree/it suits your agenda but not.if it doesn't?

I’m making the point that the government’s position is that schools are safe and kids don’t spread it so I’ll be interested to see the manipulative PR gymnastics they’ll have to undergo if they want to have children vaccinated.

If the MHRA and the JVCI say it is safe for children to take it, we will be first in line.

They will only say so when appropriate phase 3 trials have been completed.

Additionally, tens of millions of people will have been vaccinated by then.

Any vanishingly small health risks will have been picked up in the adult population and weighed up against risk (see AZ VITT).

I can’t imagine a scenario where there is some rare side effect that only affects children and not 20+ year olds.

My 16 year old was vaccinated on Friday. She also had a flu jab in December. Modern medicine is a privilege that I am very grateful to have.