Teens will not be routinely vaccinated, JCVI recommends

[noblegiraffe]

Their report isn't out till tomorrow, but continuing with the govt tradition of making big announcements via favoured news outlets, the Telegraph reports that the guidance will be that children aged 12+ will not be offered routine covid vaccinations.

"Instead, under guidance due to be issued on Monday, jabs will be offered to children between 12 and 15 who are deemed vulnerable to Covid or who live with adults who are immunosuppressed or otherwise vulnerable to the virus. They will also now be offered to all 17-year-olds within three months of their 18th birthday."

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/07/17/children-will-get-covid-vaccines-vulnerable/

So from September, there will be literally nothing stopping covid spreading around schools bar the odd open window.

My friends who live overseas have all had their kids vaccinated (Canada, US, Asia). I'm really worried about DD who has to commute every day for work but is not yet 18. She would have it done tomorrow if she could.

Where's the evidence on prevalence in school kids?

@ineedaholidaynow

Why are flu jabs only being offered up to Y11?

Probably because it's easy to do in secondary schools which are already set up for mass vaccination (HPV vaccine).

It has really only hit my community hard in the last month.
Very little school disruption either.

Do they not understand about how new variants come about? We're going to turn schools into variant factories

Great news.

There's no way my dc would have had it but I was concerned about them being ostracised or missing out on school trips etc due to that. Glad that won't be an issue.

@PaulaPetunia

Where's the evidence on prevalence in school kids?

What evidence are you asking for?

Latest infection rates (note, not case rates) are here.

DD is 13. I am fully vaccinated but I won't yet have her vaccinated yet.
I want the choice. Just need more info on the potential long term effect.

I was wondering after the post above that said a majority of schoolkids have had it. Plus it stated flu vaccine will protect from covid.

Positive tests in schools do not equate with illness though.

@noblegiraffe

New supplies of Pfizer are due in September so while there wouldn't be enough to vaccinate over the holidays, I think it would be feasible later on.

Nah, surely Phizer now has to go to boosters for groups 1-6 and possibly people who had AZ first time around, due to the beta variant risk.

Other countries have had to vaccinate teenagers because their take up in adults is far lower, e.g. the US, whatever the rights or wrongs you can’t make a direct comparison.

I’m willing to accept that the JVCI (who are not the same thing as the government) know a fuck ton more about this than me. They made the right call when we did something different to other countries with the spacing of the doses, it’s Delta that messed that strategy up, it was the right thing to do against Alpha which was the dominant strain at the time.

Definitely the right decision to vaccinate CEV teenagers and those living with immunosuppressed people.

@bumbleymummy

Great decision. The benefits for children clearly didn’t outweigh the risks.

Given how everyone is mixing and going on holiday all summer I doubt school mixing will be a problem come September.

I can see more school closures this autumn unfortunately.

Israel vaccinated children too, what is their rate of vaccinated adults?

@WouldBeGood

Positive tests in schools do not equate with illness though.

Exactly this! The reason they have twice weekly testing is because the majority of cases they're aren't even ill with it

@PaulaPetunia

It has really only hit my community hard in the last month. Very little school disruption either.

I don’t know where you live but round here many schools have been forced to close early for the summer because there are so many cases.

That age range up to 24 is not going to tell my community anything noblegiraffe.

We have had tons of young men with it or isolating due to Euros. But school in our town has hardly any cases and my kid has had no isolations thank goodness.

Now we are on holiday and the chances of catching it wandering about in the sunshine with two friends versus sitting indoors with thirty..

I'd like my teenager to be vaccinated as I don't see it as probable that they have had it yet.

I wonder what JVCI’s reasons are for this? The US and France are vaccinating 12-17 year olds.

@PaulaPetunia

I was wondering after the post above that said a majority of schoolkids have had it. Plus it stated flu vaccine will protect from covid.

Ah right, I don't think there's data on antibodies in children, that sounds like pure speculation rather than anything evidence-based.

@Hairbrush123

I wonder what JVCI’s reasons are for this? The US and France are vaccinating 12-17 year olds.

They also have less adult uptake than we do

@ineedaholidaynow

Israel vaccinated children too, what is their rate of vaccinated adults?

I can’t get to a breakdown of adults and teenagers but overall as of 4 July it was 61 percent of population had received the first dose and 56 percent the second. Including teenagers, so rates for adults will be somewhere below that. I believe Israel has a much younger population than the UK, so I’m sure that’s also a factor in the decision making.

@bumbleymummy

Great decision. The benefits for children clearly didn’t outweigh the risks.

Given how everyone is mixing and going on holiday all summer I doubt school mixing will be a problem come September.

They are only considering the short term direct health benefits though and not considering:

A) the educational benefits from not having disrupted schooling
B) the indirect health benefits from having a functional health service that can deal with non covid health problems
C) the mental health benefits from not having to continually isolate and miss out on normal childhood activities
D) the possible long health term impacts of 'mild' covid
E) the impact on children of illness and death in their families as a result of being unable to control the virus.

Yes their risking of dying is miniscule and risks relating to the vaccine might slightly outweigh this but when you consider the broader picture above I think it makes sense to offer the vaccine to over 12s.

C) is already dealt with, Indigo, from August 16th kids will not need to isolate even if they lick a positive case.

@littlepeas

I do think it would be fairer for parents to choose to pay privately for vaccines for their dc if they strongly prefer that they have it. I suppose issues with supply make this impossible at the moment.

That wouldn't be fair at all!

My opinion is that it should be offered to all sixth formers at the very least.