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?

@ChimChimeny

Holidays abroad without having to quarantine

Have they said they will accept one jab as fully vaccinated I must have missed that .

The obesity thing requires a change in culture. Its true that a lot of people in the uk are overweight and people have been warned about it since the beginning of the pandemic but it's not something that can change quickly enough atm.

@ADreadedSunnyDay

Problem is we never really know about the health status of the people who have sadly died from Covid - and their families may not know either. Nor do we know if they accessed health care in a timely fashion - sadly people with respiratory illness can deteriorate really fast.

But @bumbleymummy makes a good point - we know that being overweight / obese is a risk factor for Covid and one that we could actually do something about / support people to take responsibility for. I would prefer we stopped spending money into lateral flow tests and actually supported people properly to make healthy lifestyle changes.

Obesity is a risk factor for so many diseases and costs billions to the NHS and other services. So much money has been poured into various campaigns and interventions to try and improve this, all with limited success.

I agree that this needs to be stepped up, but it's such a complex issue with no quick fixes that the UK has struggled to tackle for a long time now.

[quote DumplingsAndStew]@bumbleymummy

Most of the teens already have ‘umbrellas’ because they’ve had the virus.

There have been just over 7.5 million confirmed covid cases in the UK. Not sure how many of those were in teenagers, but I certainly don't think it lines up with the guess that 'most' teens have already had covid.[/quote]
50-70% apparently,according to recent reports.

Rhonda, antibody tests could give some indication.

“but it's such a complex issue with no quick fixes”

I agree with this. But it’s exactly the argument brought up early in the pandemic that proved to be incorrect.

I fear the truth is that, despite being overall a far greater risk to society, we will be happy to file it under the “too hard/don’t tackle” heading.

@Hellocatshome

The risk of a 14 year old boy getting myocarditis as a side affect of the vaccine is higher than the risk of them being hospitalised with Covid. Therefore my 14 year old boy won't be getting the vaccine.

This is a false equivalence, though. Myocarditis has in the vast majority of cases been easily treatable with ibuprofen. It doesn't make much sense to compare it to hospitalisations. If you want to compare it like-for-like, you should compare the risk of myocarditis with the vaccine to risk of myocarditis with covid infection. From the data so far, it looks like the risk of myocarditis is lower with the vaccine than it is with covid infection.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/29/covid-poses-higher-risk-of-myocarditis-than-vaccine-in-male-teens-us-study

@minatrina

I already made that point, and have done several times over the past week or two, and it gets ignored every time.

People are quick to shout that the effects of covid on young people is 'practically a cold', but somehow think that myocarditis is a death sentence.

@bumbleymummy

50-70% apparently,according to recent reports.

The math doesn't add up. It's an estimate, based on guesswork, and probably a factor of - the good old favourite - self reporting.

If you are willing to accept the accuracy of basing these numbers off the ability of a small number of 'new' antibody tests, why not accept the ability of the vaccine, or the accuracy of the testing?

@herecomesthsun

Anyone wondering why their teenage child ought to have a vaccine might like to listen to the comments of Chris Whitty and JVT this afternoon.

(I've just posted some chunks of it on the data thread)

And this is what Chris Whitty said in February 2021 when cases etc were much higher and before the government decided to sell vaccinating children as an option:

“If you keep children out of school, every single one of the children you keep out of school is disadvantaged. The risk to children is incredibly low from going to school and from catching Covid. So everything is strongly in favour of children going to school.”

educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2021/02/24/chief-medical-officer-if-you-keep-children-out-of-school-every-single-one-of-the-children-you-keep-out-of-school-is-disadvantaged/

PingusLittleSister, whatever anyone said in Feb 2021 isn't relevant, there wasn't Delta back then.

@Megistotherium

PingusLittleSister, whatever anyone said in Feb 2021 isn't relevant, there wasn't Delta back then.

But Delta isn't making children anymore sick than any other variant. Look at the NHS data I posted a page or two back that clearly shows that. Yes, it's Delta is more infectious but as Imperial College have just completed research that shows little difference in the viral load between vaccinated and unvaccinated people I'm not that convinced vaccines really reduce spread a great deal.

But have you looked at the data from US? There were like 400 child death in last 18 months or whatever, but last 2 months, there were 100+ death. More spread, more death. More spread, more seriously ill children.

My 17 year old is double jabbed with no side effects. 14 year old wants the jab. I am also keen for him to have it to reduce risk of long covid. Also, am worried about If new variants emerge that affect you get people more.

*affect younger people

@Megistotherium

But have you looked at the data from US? There were like 400 child death in last 18 months or whatever, but last 2 months, there were 100+ death. More spread, more death. More spread, more seriously ill children.

But we aren't the USA and apparently we aren't supposed to compare countries because its not a like for like comparison.

For example, the UK is a similar size to Japan, but Japan has 3 times our population density and an older population BUT only has about 16k deaths from covid and far fewer cases.

To be honest that's more of an interesting comparison than the USA where diet and education are not great and good healthcare is a luxury few can afford.

I'm not some crazy anti vaxer/covid denier BTW I just really dislike and distrust our government.

Japanese people have totally different mindset to British. But it's now spreading through the country and younger people are dying there too. I think they announced that they had first under 10 death few days ago.

@DumplingsAndStew: "People are quick to shout that the effects of covid on young people is 'practically a cold', but somehow think that myocarditis is a death sentence."

But it misses the point that the likelihood of both severe symptoms or side effect in that particular group is tiny.

Which isn't to ignore the overall benefit, going on current data.

But it's understandable, isn't it, that some want more convincing, or longer term data, to see their friends benefitting first, or just would prefer to take their chances.

I don't mean to say that you have to agree with the choice. But it is understandable that some don't see it as a straight black and white choice. Isn't it?

Quite frankly I'm beyond caring whether batshit parents decide to overanalyse giving their DC the Covid vaccine or not. I do have some patience however with those who applied the same critical analysis and research to all childhood vaccines. But somehow this latest cohort seem hellbent on ignoring those who are experts in this field and are in fact vaccinating their own DC, are instead reading memes on FB.

@Megistotherium

Japanese people have totally different mindset to British. But it's now spreading through the country and younger people are dying there too. I think they announced that they had first under 10 death few days ago.

With respect, my Japanese relatives are not that different from British people. I'm not sure what you mean by mindset but if it's the old, 'they do as they are told' trope then it's just not true. There are certainly alot less fat people in Japan than the UK though which could have some bearing on the figures.

In fact life in Japan has been much less disrupted than the UK over the last 18 months.

Do you have a source for the healthy child death in Japan?

@BonnesVacances

Quite frankly I'm beyond caring whether batshit parents decide to overanalyse giving their DC the Covid vaccine or not. I do have some patience however with those who applied the same critical analysis and research to all childhood vaccines. But somehow this latest cohort seem hellbent on ignoring those who are experts in this field and are in fact vaccinating their own DC, are instead reading memes on FB.

Exactly.

[quote DumplingsAndStew]@bumbleymummy

50-70% apparently,according to recent reports.

The math doesn't add up. It's an estimate, based on guesswork, and probably a factor of - the good old favourite - self reporting.

If you are willing to accept the accuracy of basing these numbers off the ability of a small number of 'new' antibody tests, why not accept the ability of the vaccine, or the accuracy of the testing?[/quote]
Actually, I think it’s based on the results of the school antibody survey from ons along with modelling based on case incidence with delta.

*less likely to get covid and be ill/miss school, etc.
*even if he gets covid, he's less likely to spread it to you/others
*ultimately less likely to end up with long covid

@BonnesVacances

Quite frankly I'm beyond caring whether batshit parents decide to overanalyse giving their DC the Covid vaccine or not. I do have some patience however with those who applied the same critical analysis and research to all childhood vaccines. But somehow this latest cohort seem hellbent on ignoring those who are experts in this field and are in fact vaccinating their own DC, are instead reading memes on FB.

I do think there is a lot of overanalysing going on. I've seen some people describe it as 'a horrific decision' which given the how privileged you are to live in country with easy access to vaccines seems a massive overreaction.

I know tons of kids in the 12-15 bracket that are fully vaccinated(both shots) at this stage. Some have had some mild illness for a day or 2 afterwards but everyone is back at school and back to normal. I really don't feel like it is a decision that needs so much hysteria surrounding it. Do it or don't do it but don't be one of those those people feeding the hysteria and the misinformation.

@PingusLittleSister I think Japan has one of the lowest rates of obesity.

Risk of Long covid is 0.2% in children without pre-existing health conditions according to a recent Australian study. .