Does anyone find the JCVI infuriatingly slow?

[nynynynyny]

Their decision making is so slow. They have signed off on boosters for only 500k people.

It's clear we need the booster program to start ASAP. They drag their feet with every decision understandably the urgency to start this seems quite clear.

Well, they're starting with the most vulnerable who are least likely have formed a good immune response.

That sounds pretty good to me

A hub near us is starting next week.

Still waiting for them to agree to vaccinate clinically vulnerable 12-15 year olds.

My sister works at a vaccine centre - they are throwing out batches due to low uptake.

Just offer the booster to all over 50's rather than waste them

I wouldn't like any decisions to be made in haste so if it does take longer to make the right decision rather than be pressured and possibly make a wrong decision then that's fine with me.

I find them infuriatingly slow OP. For the love of god, why haven't they offered the vaccine to 12-15 year olds over the summer??? There will be plenty who won't take it up, but why not let those that want to, do so? Every little helps and all that. There's been hardly anyone getting a vaccine recently, so get it going, the vulnerable elderly too. What are they waiting for????

Separate to the booster discussion I find it quite unfathomable that there is still no decision to offer to the 12-15s given the likely carnage that’s going to happen in high schools next term. All teenagers and their parents should be given at least the opportunity to have it NOW.

They ordered tens of millions of the stuff. If they really aren’t going to use it then they need to send it to the countries that need it not sit on their hands

I think it would have been nice if at least the most vulnerable children 12-15 had been able to go back to school vaccinated and with time to develop an immune response post vaccination.

The MHRA approved Pfizer on June 4th.

They said:

“We have carefully reviewed clinical trial data in children aged 12 to 15 years and have concluded that the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective in this age group and that the benefits of this vaccine outweigh any risk.

“We have in place a comprehensive safety surveillance strategy for monitoring the safety of all UK-approved COVID-19 vaccines and this surveillance will include the 12- to 15-year age group.

“No extension to an authorisation would be approved unless the expected standards of safety, quality and effectiveness have been met.

The government are getting increasingly pissed off with them around vaccinating 12-15 year olds, they’ve already had NHS Trusts draw up plans to jab the kids in schools and are basically waiting for an ok.

Saw something about the JCVI now dithering because they don’t want kids’ jabs to affect the booster plan. Don’t know if that’s true or being fed to the media to make them look weak.

I thought the most vulnerable 12-15 yos, and those who are household members of immune-compromised/CEV were able to have the vaccine?

We are all set to go for flu reception to year 11, now we’ve been told to prepare for Covid in school 🙄

@RoseAndRose

I thought the most vulnerable 12-15 yos, and those who are household members of immune-compromised/CEV were able to have the vaccine?

They are, some are done.

Rose they are in theory. It was authorised by the JCVI weeks ago but it didn't start until last week. We knew dd should be included but we couldn't get anyone to confirm it until we got a call. She was done last week. She won't be fully protected until half term. There are loads of eligible children still waiting.

@RoseAndRose

I thought the most vulnerable 12-15 yos, and those who are household members of immune-compromised/CEV were able to have the vaccine?

A lot of 12-15 children previously shielding as CEV have not been allowed the vaccine yet.

Only a small number of 12-15s have access to the vaccine (some were not accounted CEV). It has been quite confusing for parents.

Even those supposed to be eligible for vaccine have not been offered vaccine in many areas.

The vaccines take some time to take effect, of course.

However, the children are supposed to be back in school this month.

It doesn't affect my family as much as others, but I do think it could have been handled better.

@nynynynyny the 500k is, according to the BBC earlier not part of the booster programme, it's a third dose. Those 500k might be part of the booster programme too, getting a 4th dose.

Yes, I agree, OP. Especially considering they were the first body in the world to give the go ahead to start vaccinating. They seem to be over cautious now.

Yep. The 12-15yr olds are stuck back in school next week, that decision seems to have been pushed to the back burner.

There is emerging evidence and thought that mass vaccination is actually driving vaccine evading variants so the delay is fine by me! Vaccinate the elderly and vulnerable to protect them, kids don’t need it. Vaccinating 12-15 year olds will have sod all effect on cases and spread, we’ve just watched that unfold in the wider, mostly vaccinated, population since June.

Vaccinating 12-15 year olds will have sod all effect on cases and spread, we’ve just watched that unfold in the wider, mostly vaccinated, population since June.

Are you sure about that? Which age groups are the most infected?

They need to prioritise the most vulnerable, they would have been vaccinated earlier and many are of working age.

We have 2 family members who fall into this category. I'm very happy they get it ahead of my parents who quite frankly can stay at home/go for walks as they are retired

Well that’s actually great news noblegiraffe. Now all those cases have been and gone and those teenagers have robust natural immunity and so are unlikely to catch or spread covid again. In fact i was just reading a Harvard study which has found that natural immunity protects against the delta variant better than the vaccine and that out of the whole group they looked at in Israel, zero previously infected but unvaccinated people had caught it again and were deemed to have less than a 1% chance of infecting anybody else in case of a benign and symptomless reinfection.

@noblegiraffe

Vaccinating 12-15 year olds will have sod all effect on cases and spread, we’ve just watched that unfold in the wider, mostly vaccinated, population since June.

Are you sure about that? Which age groups are the most infected?

But hardly any deaths or hospitalisations and natural immunity far far more effective than vaccines.

I've seen separately two paediatricians interviewed say that it's not clear the risks outweigh the benefits of vaccinating the young. They are not vectors and vaccination of 12-15year olds in more political the medical. The efficacy of the vaccine clearly wears off and rolling out boosters might catch us in a perpetual cycle of vaccines. Risk of ADE still unknown since vaccines are too new. Far better to top up just the old and vulnerable like we do already for flu - far more sustainable. I echo @Lostinacloud: super variant is likely to emerge from over vaccination during a pandemic.

Well we're going to find out very soon, aren't we?

@JellyBabiesSaveLives

Still waiting for them to agree to vaccinate clinically vulnerable 12-15 year olds.

This has already happened.

God forbid they actually do their job and make decisions based on science and evidence. Instead they should just give up and let the public decide on when to vaccinate children based purely on how afraid they are and a bit of gut instinct. Or better yet, let the politicians pressure them to make the decision for the good of the economy.

Stupid Jcvi, actually considering what's actually best for children.