ONS report - majority of parents would vaccinate their children

[Dustyboots]

Would you?

They're gunning for this now. I find that worrying.

twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1410589646040580106/photo/1

@whatswithtodaytoday

I'd be happy for mine to be vaccinated once it's been through trials. I'm not concerned about him getting it, but would rather lessen the chance of him passing it to my vulnerable parents and friend.

Not sure why children would need informed consent? You don't wait for consent to give them all the baby vaccinations, you just get on with it.

At the moment only over 12s appear to be being considered for vaccination. I would expect the vast majority of children aged 12 or over (with additional needs) would be able to take a level of understanding and be involved in the decision process either way.

If a 12 year old flat out refuses to be vaccinated no practitioner would agree to do it. Likewise if a 12 year old was desperate for it and parents where unsure I would hope they would take the child’s views into account

No I wouldn’t. Too new. No long term data. Happy to take that risk as an adult. Not worth it for a child when the vaccine poses very little risk to them, I think the kids have done enough to protect the adult population.

No no no no

Mine have already had their first shots (teenagers, CEV person in immediate household)

I know it's not a guarantee they won't bring it home from school, but we're very glad of the reduction in risk

When the virus I should say.

@bumbleymummy as a parent, I wouldn't do anything that I think will harm my child. I'm sure it's the same for other parents who wants to vaccinate their children too.
So just don't vaccinate yours, but stop making an assumption we are making the decision out of fear. That's very condescending.

I’m not sure how anyone can look at the figures and come to the conclusion that children are at risk and need to be protected. The JCVI (and some SAGE scientists iirc) have repeatedly said children are low risk and that there are ethical and moral issues to consider irt vaccinating children, which would not primarily be for their benefit, when there are still millions of at risk older people in the world who have not yet been vaccinated. It’s a bit selfish and short sighted IMO but I know that most people will just go along with the crowd and then claim moral superiority over people who made a different decision to them.

I don't know if you mean this to be the case @bumbleymummy, but your posts come across as very patronising

not everyone who disagrees with your thoughts on coronavirus is "going along with the crowd", and it's ridiculous to write off everyone with alternative views as just being a bit dim

based on the data and what is currently known, I personally think it is better to offer children under 16 the vaccination. The morality argument you're trying to make isn't the be all and end all - 1) the mRNA vaccines (which are currently those being considered) can't be used in many of the countries who are desperate for stocks, and 2) the UK letting itself get back into a terrible situation regarding coronavirus is no good to anyone, the data remains to be seen, but it may be necessary for children to be vaccinated to gain control over the virus, and letting it run rampant is good way to export even more variants to the rest of the world

Not sure why children would need informed consent? You don't wait for consent to give them all the baby vaccinations, you just get on with it.

You can't see ANY difference at all between the emergency authorised covid vaccines for a virus which poses almost zero risk to them and Since 1990 (when measles killed 872,000 people), it is estimated that over one in 5 of all child deaths averted have been due to measles vaccination.

Righto 👍🏻

Tell your child the statistical risk of them being hospitalised or dying from covid. Tell them the vaccine being offered to them is a brand new technology which has never been used for vaccines until now. Tell them there is effectively zero long term safety data. Tell them the gov changed the regulations so that the person responsible for placing the product on the market has no liability for any loss or damage.

And of course, also tell them that by having the vaccine they'll be "doing their bit" for society.

If they want to go ahead with informed consent - great.

I haven’t said they are dim. I just think many are living in a state of fear. If we hadn’t been living like this and a new vaccine was launched for a virus with a 0.16 in 100,000 risk of death do you really think the majority of parents would want it for their children?

www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(21)00066-3/fulltext

Yes particularly my eldest going into year 11. Cannot face the level of disruption we’ve had so far.

It’s not about risk of death it’s about not having an illness which can be prevented, not having exam year disrupted, being able to live life and make plans without the fear of having to suddenly isolate. The benefits to mental health alone are worth it for my kids.

People vaccinate against chicken pox, flu etc which are not a risk of death, many reasons to vaccinate not all about risk of death.

@speckledostrichegg

"Noone is "gunning for it"

I suspect the majority of parents are would want to take up the offer of a vaccination for their child because we're about to move into the "living with COVID" phase, potentially ditching all restrictions which will see cases sky rocket. This is being done on the assumption that children won't be impacted, which I'm pretty uncomfortable with.

Don't take up the offer if you don't want to."

This. Exactly this.
I'm really keen to have my kids vaccinated. They've had them for everything else and I trust researchers and scientists.
Look at all the places 12+ are being vaccinated (basically everywhere that has access to vaccines). They've been fully approved not just by the researchers but by all those countries' independent health bodies.

No-one is forced to take vaccines. Not even the MMR ones. So don't block parents like me who want to vaccinate to try to avoid them getting long Covid or other damage. Just make your own decision and leave the majority to it.

[quote bumbleymummy]I haven’t said they are dim. I just think many are living in a state of fear. If we hadn’t been living like this and a new vaccine was launched for a virus with a 0.16 in 100,000 risk of death do you really think the majority of parents would want it for their children?

www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(21)00066-3/fulltext[/quote]
@bumbleymummy I have seen many of your PPs which minimise the impact of coronavirus - death is not the only outcome which matters

There's certainly a debate to be had regarding vaccinating children, and it needs to be up to individual families to decide. However, it is established that children suffer from long COVID, and this does not necessarily correlate with how serious the initial symptoms were. We also know nothing of the implications long term of a COVID infection in childhood and whether this predisposes to other illnesses such as T1DM (much is made of the idea of not knowing about mRNA vaccines long term, and people tend to forget about this point).

We also know cases are increasing, and this will only get worse and worse over the summer, with children being the most significantly exposed. All these points together I expect are the reason many parents said yes to the ONS survey.

The other aspect - non COVID harms to children - again is being underplayed. It may become apparent we need to vaccinate children in order to get population level protection. Without this, children will be impacted by the consequences of an uncontrolled pandemic in the UK, even if the risks specifically of infection are low for them/

@imeanreeally

Researchers have been studying and working with mRNA vaccines for decades. It's also been used in cancer research. The vaccines have also met all the normal testing and trialling of any other vaccine, otherwise they can't be used as vaccines.

I haven’t said they are dim. I just think many are living in a state of fear. If we hadn’t been living like this and a new vaccine was launched for a virus with a 0.16 in 100,000 risk of death do you really think the majority of parents would want it for their children?

So that's a rate of 0.00016%

The paediatric CFR for covid is about 0.06%

I think it's pretty sensible to take the vaccine if you want to put your DC into the group with the lower risk of death.

And of course it's because the disease is actively in circulation. Nothing to do with a 'state of fear'

Yes to my daughter ( or she can decide herself as almost an adult). No to my son as he is not at risk from Covid and me and his dad, grandparents etc are fully jabbed.

No I don't think I would. The vaccine makes the effect of the disease less, for most children currently COVID isn't especially dangerous, most don't end up needing hospitalisation. Vaccination doesn't seem to stop the spread. So currently I see no benefit to vaccinating my child. However if the virus mutates further and presents a greater risk to the younger demographic, I would then.

However I should add, I would follow the guidance of the NHS, and those who know more about this than me. I would watch the evidence.

I'm surprised that the primary school figures are so high but my teenager would want a vaccine if offered.

God yeah absolutely l would want Dd vaccinating.

Funny how the fear of it mutating when too many people catch it doesn’t apply to the group suffering the most infections🤨

@Angel2702

It’s not about risk of death it’s about not having an illness which can be prevented, not having exam year disrupted, being able to live life and make plans without the fear of having to suddenly isolate. The benefits to mental health alone are worth it for my kids.

People vaccinate against chicken pox, flu etc which are not a risk of death, many reasons to vaccinate not all about risk of death.

They just need to stop isolating contacts. It looks like that is in the pipeline anyway.

My DD12 is getting a vaccine as soon as she is allowed. She has also asked for the flu vaccine (privately) this year as they stop having the nasal spray after yr 7.

We are incredibly fortunate to have vaccines that work. The more people that have them, the more protected those that can't have them are as well as ourselves. Gives teaching unions one less thing to use to try and pressure the government into shutting schools as well.

Can’t help thinking this is just a cost thing by the government.

We also know cases are increasing, and this will only get worse and worse over the summer, with children being the most significantly exposed.

Which means that most of them will be immune, if they aren’t already. It would be interesting to know how many already have immunity before we give them a vaccine which, by your own admission, we don’t know the long term effects of, when they may not even need it.

I thought that Liz Truss said that it's unlikely to be offered to 12-16 year olds because u4t types are worried that vaccinated kids won't have to isolate when there's a case at school.

I don't see any indication that they are gunning for it but think that CV 12-17 year olds should be offered it at a minimum.