Pfizer approved for 12-15 year olds

[LimeAndLemons]

Just seen this.
The UK regulator has said the benefits outweigh the risks in giving it to 12-15yo.

Would you let your child have it? I'm very conflicted on this.

No, but I believe in my right as a parent to make medical decisions for my children based upon OUR circumstances and risk factors and I'm bloody worried by the eagerness with which people seem to be determined to override these principles of bodily autonomy and informed consent and cheering on any rhetoric about the state forcing medical procedures and declaring of a person's confidential medical records.

Carry on discrediting those people who want to exercise their right to be "errr... but?" and question things as being uneducated and scared.

Incidentally I don't read red top newspapers, very well educated and I've had the vaccine myself as the risks/benefits are more clear for my age group.

@Sirzy

That's not what the government are saying. They are saying that the vaccine doesn't stop transmission. People who have vaccinated still can get it / spread it. That's the same if they are 12 or 80!

Given there is definitely not universal agreement between parents as to whether their child should have the jab, all children in the year group / bubble will have to isolate if one of their peers comes down with COVID. The government haven't at all indicated this will change if children get jabbed.

It's just a carrot being used to persuade you. You hope it will stop transmission and lower the risk for self isolation. No evidence over the last 7 months that this policy will change, no matter how many people have the jab

Being vaccinated has been shown to reduce transmission significantly

Even the goverment are saying it reduces transmission www.gov.uk/government/news/one-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine-can-cut-household-transmission-by-up-to-half

The world has gone mad if people think it’s a good idea to vaccinate healthy children with a vaccine that has no long term data outcomes and has caused at least 116 cases of myocarditis in teen trials in the usa already. There is virtually zero risk of covid death to almost every child on the planet and yet people want to balance that zero risk against the risk of a new vaccine with already known (and sometimes fatal) short term side effects and unknown long term effects.
I don’t give a shit about herd immunity to be honest. If I’m worried about my own safety against covid I can have the vaccine, I will NOT risk my children’s health for my own.

@strangeshapedpotato

It absolutely staggers belief that there are so called parents out there who believe it's better their kid get infected with a virus, than have treatment to prevent it.

It's effectively child abuse to deny them this protection.

I’m assuming all parents with this view have sought private vaccination against chicken pox?

@Sirzy oh yes and the government have been so very truthful through all this

Actually, the one particular video on the play list that visually explains how herd immunity works is brilliant.

The vaccine reduces transmission.

@Farmer5505

we should NOT be vaccinating children while other countries are so low on vaccines. We need to make sure they are distributed equally first so that elderly/essential workers are vaccinated throughout the world before we consider a child vaccination programme.

This! It is a global pandemic, we are all one world, why are we talking of vaccinating healthy very low risk children when other countries haven't vaccinated the vulnerable.

Totally agree with this, it's really not necessary for children. The high at risk should be prioritised.

Yes! DH and I got the Pfizer vaccine too. A few children of friends in USA and Europe have already got it, DS (almost 13) wants to have it too.

[quote Lostinacloud]@Sirzy oh yes and the government have been so very truthful through all this [/quote]
Well every bit of research shows that it reduces transmission. I only quoted to government page given that the previous poster said the government had said it doesn’t stop transmission - which it doesn’t but it does significantly reduce it

Yes, my 16 year old has already had both doses, it was his choice, his condition means he is clinically vulnerable but in his case he would be no more affected by COVID than anyone else.

It will be my 14 year olds decision when the time comes but I’m fairly certain he will have it. I will encourage him to have it if he asks me. I don’t want either of them suffering from long COVID, the impacts of that are appalling.

One reason for vaccinating dc regardless of the situation in other countries is to protect from community transmission in their own countries.

I am selfish enough to want to protect my own dc from the impact of long covid and for them to be able to stop wearing masks as much in their daily lives.

@eatbroccoli

My child is under that age luckily and if they enforce it, I will do anything in my power to prevent him from getting that poison.

Sorry, but this really did make me laugh!

@wonderfullife123

I also don't understand why we think that children will be isolated out of school at all once the entire adult population of the UK has been vaccinated? Adults are protected and that is what will protect communities. This is a false transaction - it's not children's job to protect adults and especially when adults ( in wealthy countries) have been offered excellent protection already. And what justification is there for not supporting global vaccine equity for adults first? I am struggling to find any coherent explanation to support the clamour to mass vaccinate teens. Kate Bingham specifically said we wouldn't even vaccinate younger adults.

To protect their friends perhaps. My vulnerable child will be in a class therefore self isolating positive cases helps to protect those children. Or do we just let it run through the classes because the healthy kids won't be affected and sure what does it matter if a few of the ones with health conditions are collateral in that? These children are as entitled to an education in a safe risk assessed environment as any other child and right now allowing covid to just run through schools without mitigation wouldn't pass any risk assessments.

@Lostinacloud

The world has gone mad if people think it’s a good idea to vaccinate healthy children with a vaccine that has no long term data outcomes and has caused at least 116 cases of myocarditis in teen trials in the usa already. There is virtually zero risk of covid death to almost every child on the planet and yet people want to balance that zero risk against the risk of a new vaccine with already known (and sometimes fatal) short term side effects and unknown long term effects. I don’t give a shit about herd immunity to be honest. If I’m worried about my own safety against covid I can have the vaccine, I will NOT risk my children’s health for my own.

If you are concerned about myocarditis then I suggest you should be concerned about covid to be honest. We are under the top paediatric cardiologists in the country who have been studying the link between asymptomatic covid in children and the recent uptick in myocarditis and this has also been recognised in other countries.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with reservations regarding this. DS has had all his vaccinations up to now so I'm not an anti vaxxer or conspiracy theorist etc but it just makes me feel uneasy.

It's a difficult situation trying to weigh up what to do for the best.

Husband and I have had both vaccines. Have two children but at the stage I wouldn’t give the go ahead. Same as many, we don’t know enough long term.

@jumpbounce - I sympathise, but if we are going to manage COVID at some point in the same way as we do flu, as the CMO has said, we didn't exclude close contacts of flu sufferers from school for 10 days at a time. Flu is of course more dangerous for children, and children are actually super-spreaders for flu in a way they aren't for COVID. There will be a point when we stop doing these mass exclusions, it isn't going to continue indefinitely. I support the vaccines for vulnerable children, and families with vulnerable members who want their children to have it.

My 12 year old DS has just had his HPV vaccine, it is his choice on whether he wants the covid vaccine or not. I'm not sure it's fair to tell young teens they can't have it, it should be their choice

[quote wonderfullife123]@jumpbounce - I sympathise, but if we are going to manage COVID at some point in the same way as we do flu, as the CMO has said, we didn't exclude close contacts of flu sufferers from school for 10 days at a time. Flu is of course more dangerous for children, and children are actually super-spreaders for flu in a way they aren't for COVID. There will be a point when we stop doing these mass exclusions, it isn't going to continue indefinitely. I support the vaccines for vulnerable children, and families with vulnerable members who want their children to have it.[/quote]
There will of course be a point and that point will be when covid is not spreading and mutating as it currently is. We do have notifiable diseases still that require contact isolation and it wouldn't surprise me if covid becomes one of those for the immediate and short term future.
Essentially all these children have risk assessments and health care plans in place in general and schools must make adjustments to ensure the child's safety for whatever reason that may be, such as a child in my child's preschool class undergoing invasive treatment and we all had to keep our children off when they had any cold symptoms because that child cannot be denied an education and the risk assessment dictates the mitigations which ensure that child is as safe as possible (nothing can be fully safe.)

I too am also feeling conflicted, my gut instinct is No they don't need a vaccine that reduces the severity of illness when the majority of the time that illness is so "severe" that they don't know they've got it , however, I feel there will be external social pressure to make them have it.

[quote wonderfullife123]@jumpbounce - I sympathise, but if we are going to manage COVID at some point in the same way as we do flu, as the CMO has said, we didn't exclude close contacts of flu sufferers from school for 10 days at a time. Flu is of course more dangerous for children, and children are actually super-spreaders for flu in a way they aren't for COVID. There will be a point when we stop doing these mass exclusions, it isn't going to continue indefinitely. I support the vaccines for vulnerable children, and families with vulnerable members who want their children to have it.[/quote]
Most children are vaccinated against flu, certainly the most vulnerable are. No children are vaccinated against covid yet.

We don't have the luxury of waiting and seeing, or not having the vaccine as ds shielded most of the year, due to medical vulnerabilities. We are just hoping ds will be able to have even though he is a year too young. His sister's , 14 and 15 have said they want it.