Tell me why my son of 14 should have the covid jab?

[Notagoodtime]

This is not a antivax question. My husband and I are double jabbed. I am currently in bed with COVID. My reason for wanting my kids to have the jab was to protect others. As I seem to know lots of people at the moment who are double jabbed and have or have had covid this reasoning isn’t really valid. If we are being are being told that kids get the virus mildly what are the reasons? If my son could still get covid it doesn’t really make feel more confident about him spreading it to the vulnerable. I’m trying to get my head around the advantages before I make a decision. I’m glad I have had the vaccine as I still feel rubbish so dread to think how I would be without but surely this isn’t the same for kids?

@Itsnotover

12 weeks is a lot of time to be out of school isn't it when children have already had literally months out of school.

There are going to be many students with huge gaps in their education whichever way you look at it.

Most of those children are not out of school for 12 weeks

I’m not ‘skeptical about all vaccines’. The vaccine has been great and I’ve very much supported its rollout - particularly to the most vulnerable groups who have benefitted the most from it.

Giving it to children, who are not usually seriously ill and most of whom have already had the virus, yeah, I’m skeptical about that.

I’m not ‘skeptical about all vaccines’. The vaccine has been great and I’ve very much supported its rollout - particularly to the most vulnerable groups who have benefitted the most from it.

Fair enough.

Long Covid, and I believe they are now seeing links with Covid and type 1 diabetes?
Small chance of this but that's probably no consolation to the people who now have to live with it the rest of their lives 😕

I don't think most children have had the virus. It depends where you live. Only this month, we're seeing a lot of cases in local schools.

Yes diabetes is vile. I had it whilst pregnant and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

I'm even more confused after getting a phone call from the doctors today to book my 12 year old (13 on Thursday) in for the jab because apparently someone in out household is at risk. They want him in this afternoon for the jab. I'm really not sure who in in the house is supposidly at risk, my middle child and I have asthma (controlled) but I've had both jabs, is autism a risk factor?

@bumbleymummy

I’m not ‘skeptical about all vaccines’. The vaccine has been great and I’ve very much supported its rollout - particularly to the most vulnerable groups who have benefitted the most from it.

Giving it to children, who are not usually seriously ill and most of whom have already had the virus, yeah, I’m skeptical about that.

I think this viewpoint works if you really think you can categorise people into the vulnerable and not vulnerable, the illness into serious and not serious. I shared that view till quite recently!

I think it's a bit less predictable and knowable than that sadly.

My own tussles with covid in the last month have changed my view. My eldest aged 12 has been ill for two weeks and still not totally better. Not the end of the world but she is going to have it take it easy for a while yet. This is a child who has had one day off school since YR and is never ill!

Her younger brother brushed it off with one day under the weather.

Dh and I both vaxxed - though DH vaxxed a long time ago as medic - have been ill with it two weeks now. Not dying, not about to be hospitalised but proper ill! I wouldn't want my vaxxed parents to have this.

I would not have my Dd, Dh nor me in any kind of vulnerable category. No I don't think we've been at risk of hospitalisation but I would not like to repeat the last two weeks not one bit!

Also I know an enormous pool of people - plus all the pools of people they know - who have been vaxxed with no ill outcomes.

So to me it's a no brainer really. We don't know that our teens will brush it off in a day. Chances are they will but they might not.

The delta variant is more unpredictable in terms of who gets really unwell with it. It's killing more younger people than the alpha one did.

This is an odd thread. OP it is OK to discuss vaccination with your DS and for him not to go ahead at this point. Jury's out for me re benefit of vaccinating 12-15 year olds to be honest based on JCVI. No reason not to wait if you want to.

I think long Covid is a bit of a red herring - taking a while to recover from a virus is nothing new and a lot of the long covid research is that it's self reported and hard to differentiate if the symptoms are actually caused by covid rather than something else.

I would for reasons that @EducatingArti said. I think if cases were low, it allows the luxury of waiting. As they are high and there are no mitigations in schools etc, it seems govt is hell bent on kids getting it one way or another, so it's whether you favour natural infection with some known and unknown consequences or vaccination with some known and unknown consequences. I believe risk of long covid is reduced with vaccine and myocarditis is less risk with vaccine compared to natural. Good luck.

www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s0806-vaccination-protection.html

@hennaoj

I'm even more confused after getting a phone call from the doctors today to book my 12 year old (13 on Thursday) in for the jab because apparently someone in out household is at risk. They want him in this afternoon for the jab. I'm really not sure who in in the house is supposidly at risk, my middle child and I have asthma (controlled) but I've had both jabs, is autism a risk factor?

Are you down as his carer?

@WoMandalorian

Long Covid, and I believe they are now seeing links with Covid and type 1 diabetes? Small chance of this but that's probably no consolation to the people who now have to live with it the rest of their lives 😕

Over the past few days I keep seeing this being repeated on Mumsnet (someone even started a thread that thank fully didn't gain traction) so I will say it again:

No, there is not a higher risk of developing Type 1 diabetes from covid anymore than from any other viral infection.

As I said on a covid/diabetes risk thread someone previously started any viral infection can trigger an autoimmune disease like T1 diabetes, not just covid.

Also T1 diabetes isn't just diagnosed in children it can be diagnosed at ANY age hence it being renamed Type 1 diabetes rather than juvenile onset diabetes as it used to be called.

Yes, some people have developed diabetes after having covid but some people also develop T1 diabetes after having flu, measles, the common cold, etc etc

Any autoimmune disease can be triggered by any viral infection if you have a genetic predisposition.

I do wonder if a T1 diabetes/covid scare story is going to be the next 'thing' to scare encourage parents to vaccinate their children.

@Itsnotover

The delta variant is more unpredictable in terms of who gets really unwell with it. It's killing more younger people than the alpha one did.

Link to source please?

To reduce the chance of him being affected badly by covid

@Itsnotover

The delta variant is more unpredictable in terms of who gets really unwell with it. It's killing more younger people than the alpha one did.

Not according to the NHS deaths data it isn't, it's still very much mainly killing people over 60 years: See: www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/

Part way down under 'Data' you can download a table (COVID 19 total announced deaths 22 September 2021) that shows the number of deaths over different age groups from March 2020 to the present day.

Of course that link I posted only shows hospital deaths - I suppose in theory lots of children could now be dying in care settings or at home but I think that's unlikely.

As it's a quiet day here is the data downloaded from the NHS website and presented as a graph :)

@EducatingArti

He is less likely to get Covid if he has the jab. He is less likely therefore spread it to others. He is less likely to have his education disrupted by being ill with Covid. He is less to disrupt the education of others by passing on Covid. He is less likely to pass on Covid to teachers and therefore disrupt the education of a whole class. He is even less likely to be one of the tiny minority of teenagers that gets seriously ill. He is less likely to get long Covid. He is less likely to pass Covid on to elderly or vulnerable relatives.

Nailed it, first post! :-)

Sorry it's displayed really small but the colours show:
Lime green - 0 to 19years
Pale purple - 20 to 39 years
Bright blue - 40 to 59 years
Orange - 60 to 79 years
Dark blue shows - 80+ years

The reason you can't really see lime green and pale purple is because not very many people under 39 have died from covid over the last 18 months.

@PingusLittleSister thanks. My understanding wasn't that Delta is killing significant numbers of younger people - what I had heard was that it kills more younger people than the alpha strain.

[quote Itsnotover]@PingusLittleSister thanks. My understanding wasn't that Delta is killing significant numbers of younger people - what I had heard was that it kills more younger people than the alpha strain. [/quote]
Hi,
Yes I understood that but if you look at the data you can see that deaths in 1-19 year olds haven't risen with Delta. They have stayed pretty consistently low throughout the last 18 months accounting for 59 deaths in a hospital setting since March 2020.

PingusLittleSister, but the vaccine is for prevention of illness. And it's clear that the case of adverse reaction is still very rare for 12+, from data from other countries. So what's different from getting vaccinated for mmr to prevent measles? Many people won't die either. If you can prevent getting seriously ill or minimise the spreading, getting vaccinated is no brainer, no?

When people say that children shouldn't be vaccinated to protect adults, I think it's a bit short sighted because children need their parents to be alive and well to care for them, not to mention work to provide for them.

I'm in my early 40s, I'm not overweight and I've been vaccinated but since there are no guarantees, you can never really know. And where I live ive heard of people dying in their early 40s with covid sometimes.

If I didn't have children, I wouldn't worry about myself at all but I feel pressure to not die because i have children who are going to need me for years to come.