Are vaccines for over 12s likely to ever be offered in UK?

[Staffy1]

I thought this was the plan at one point, but lately everything I've read about it seems to be suggesting it's never going to be offered to children now. I think in a supposed free and civilised country the choice should be there for vulnerable children at least. I would hope if it won't be offered on the NHS, it will at least be allowed privately once they have offered it to everyone they are going to offer it to. If not, I don't think we live in a free country.

I can't see how parents would not be aware of any local out breaks because they'll be aware their children will have to isolate and I expect local papers will be aware as well.

The decision-making should lie with MHRA and Nice in my opinion. They are best qualified to decide if the vaccines are safe in children and are appropriate for funding.

I agree with this.

Though universities are 18+ so most should get done in main roll out and hopefully catch up schemes will catch ones 18 later in summer though DH unisverity still isn't sure if they'll be back to normal by this September.

Our local papers suppress school news, or the LA does , or the schools. Parents are very much in the dark unless directly affected.

The decision-making should lie with MHRA and Nice in my opinion. They are best qualified to decide if the vaccines are safe in children and are appropriate for funding

Yes...unfortunately their decisions seem to be made on saving money, at least as far as hypothyroidism, so people aren't being given the treatment they should and would get in other countries. I have no faith in these organisations actually making decisions on what is best for individuals. America and several European counties seem to have approved it for children. I doubt they've just tossed a coin to decide.

I work in one of the vaccine centres and a couple of weeks ago the clinical managers said they were making plans to roll out to all secondary schools in the autumn. Apparently there are also plans to roll out flu jabs to all secondary schools this year as well. Still in the planning stages at the moment, so who knows how it will work out

@vintagenurse, that's good to know, just wish it was before the autumn.

@Watapalava

To pp

I haven’t met a single parent who intends to vaccinate their kids

Kids by and large don’t need it so why give them something new? All the AZ data took months to come out so who’s to say the kids data doesn’t yield something

That aside I wouldn’t vaccinate them purely because they don’t need it

Same way I don’t vaccinate for chicken pox or flu

Never had it and if they did they will use their immune system cos that’s what it’s for?!

All this worry and excuse of vulnerable kids - do people realise hardly any kids have died even including the data on vulnerable kids? Even vulnerable kids are very very low risk.

Someone people here may be happy to risk their kids. I expect most will wait a few years

In my dd school no one I know does lft tests and haven’t done them since the first week they went back.

My son has had the flu vaccine every year for a number of years at school, along with the vast majority of the others at his school. I'm also not sure why there is huge pressure to have the measles vaccine but not chicken pox as the complication risks seem to be the same. I may be wrong, but you seem to expect a child's death from the covid vaccine, but say they barely happen at all from covid itself. I think the risk of death from the vaccine would be significantly less than from covid, just as it seems to be in adults. I also don't think worry about vulnerable kids is an excuse or misplaced. People with learning disabilities over 16 or 18 (not sure which, but I think it's 16) are in one of the priority groups as they are considered high risk. As most medicine doses are the same for an over 12 and an adult, I assume there isn't a great deal of difference in the affects of the same disease on a 13/14 year old and a 16 year old, so yes, I'm concerned for my son. No one is happy to risk their kids, they are trying to choose the lesser of two evils. Covid is not mild for everyone, not even kids.

Don't worry, they will vaccinate children, it's already happening in Canada and the US

@randomlyLostInWales

I can't see how parents would not be aware of any local out breaks because they'll be aware their children will have to isolate and I expect local papers will be aware as well.

The decision-making should lie with MHRA and Nice in my opinion. They are best qualified to decide if the vaccines are safe in children and are appropriate for funding.

I agree with this.

Though universities are 18+ so most should get done in main roll out and hopefully catch up schemes will catch ones 18 later in summer though DH unisverity still isn't sure if they'll be back to normal by this September.

If the Delta variant is adapted to spread more easily in children in a school setting it is of public interest to the whole world.

It's not a case of it only mattering to the parents of a particular school.

My 12yr old DD is vaccinated for flu at school every year. The age has been raised every year, her year group are the ones it has followed up.