Take up of vaccine in 12-15 yo is as low as 10%

[Mellowfruitfulnessy]

Guardian story on the low take-up of vaccines in teens.

I had wondered if this issue would arise. All the (normally intelligent) teens I know are really anti-vax. Strong belief it renders you infertile. I guess a lot of this must be social media influencing.

Hardly anyone showed up for the vax clinic at dc school. In the end they made all the teens talk to the nurse but the take up was almost zero. This must be happening elsewhere too. Any other experiences? It’s really worrying and I don’t know how it will be addressed. I also wonder how it will impact families wanting to travel abroad next year.

Yes apparently a group of over 30 professors, scientists and doctors should be ignored....even though;

Vaccination policy has been decided nationally, based on evidence-based advice from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), and is very closely managed. Councils do not have local discretion over the decisions and priorities made.

They also advised against children with underlining health issues having the jab as the risk of side effects outweighed the benefit.....but what do they know!? They only decided on the Vaccination policy in the first place and should be ignored if they give out info that should be a concern to our children.

@Pru24

The JCVI don't disagree with the decision made by the CMOs to offer it to teens.

They specifically said they didn't recommend it on direct health benefits alone, and referred on to the CMOs to consider wider benefits to this age group.

Good for them! Healthy kids don't need the vaccine. I personally wouldn't bother vaccinating anyone under 40. Neither of my children want the jab for very sensible reasons (no conspiracy theory nonsense) and I respect their decisions.

Have you a link to the story? I am interested to know if the 10% includes those who have not been offered it yet (i.e. most of the schools in my area).

I'm not sure if it's this one :
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/oct/18/coronavirus-live-auckland-lockdown-extended-psychosis-cases-soar-in-england

It's the top story at the minute 20 mins old.

Headteachers’ unions are calling for children to be allowed to use walk-in vaccination centres in England after new figures revealed the scale of the low take-up of the Covid jab among young teenagers.

In some areas the rate of vaccine uptake is as low as 5%, while only 15 local authorities in England have managed to give a first jab to at least a quarter of 12 to 15-year-olds, data shows.

The picture is very different in Scotland, where young people can also receive doses of the jab in drop-in vaccination centres, as the take-up is already over 50% in half of local authority areas, the Press Association reported.

School leaders’ unions are concerned that 12- to 15-year-olds in England are missing out on getting the Covid vaccination in school due to a high level of cases amongst the cohort, as well as logistical problems with vaccination teams having insufficient staff to deal with students needing jabs.

Both of my sons had it last week, even though the younger one shouldn't have had as he had only had covid just under 3 weeks before. The nurse I spoke to on the phone said he would have to wait until the next time they came in and my son told the vaccinator at the time that he'd just had covid and her response was 'oh that's plenty of time'. I rang 119 for advise and even they said it was too soon.

DD (12) had hers at a mass vaccination centre a couple of weeks ago. I will ask for the stats on her friends later but I know one had the jab a couple of days before her, one is French so actually went to France to get vaccinated ages ago and a third one told me she had covid twice so wasn’t getting the vaccine. From observing at the car park when DD got hers, it looked like a pretty steady stream of teens going in.

11 out of 27 in our year 8's class.

Sounds like it was the ones in the top STEM sets who had it so the normally intelligent ones I guess!

Ours doesn't have social media though and gets information about medical procedures from authorized sources. Perhaps that has an influence. I don't know.

We were happy to support their choice. They wanted it, we hoped they would have it. Too late now it's well and truly in.

Too many off ill or just had it so have to wait?

My daughter is getting it this week. She says her friends are also getting it. I left the decision up to her.

@Pru24

Yes apparently a group of over 30 professors, scientists and doctors should be ignored....even though;

Vaccination policy has been decided nationally, based on evidence-based advice from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), and is very closely managed. Councils do not have local discretion over the decisions and priorities made.

They also advised against children with underlining health issues having the jab as the risk of side effects outweighed the benefit.....but what do they know!? They only decided on the Vaccination policy in the first place and should be ignored if they give out info that should be a concern to our children.

What underlying health issues? Most children with most underlying health issues have been prioritized for the vaccine!

Sounds like it was the ones in the top STEM sets who had it so the normally intelligent ones I guess!

Ha ha did you actually just say that? Aww those poor dim lower set children just don't know what's good for them, do they?

Sounds like it was the ones in the top STEM sets who had it so the normally intelligent ones I guess!

Oh dear. Are we really going there?

@ollyollyoxenfree

Like you have just said, they did not recommend it based on their findings, because the health benefits were not enough and what do they compare the benefits too? The risks. They didn't agree it should be rolled out and unless you advise for it, your advising against it. As another has said, maybe teens read the JCVI report because it flagged up concerns in giving it to children. And so it was passed to the CMO to make the decision. Even though the organisation trusted to come up with the vaccine policy nationally, aren't to be trusted if flagging up concerns in giving it to children. Like you said, the did NOT recommend giving it to children. You can also twist their original comment as much as you want, they clearly said the benefits do not outweigh the risks as children in general are less effected by covid. Like I said in my first comment, kids/teens shouldn't be judged for wanting to make an informed decision before taking the Vaccine and until all that information is available they should be supported. I'm not defending my opinion here, the OP asked where these stats came from/who said it etc and I replied. If people don't like what the JCVI said, take it up with them, not me!

@noblegiraffe

Bollocks misleading stats.

Take-up of the vaccine in my school and my DS's school is zero. Why? Because they've cancelled the vaccine due to staff shortages.

The Guardian should get off its journalistic arse and ask how many teens have even been offered the jab.

This. They aren't even coming to the school where I work until the second week of November.

The take up at Ds1’s school was pretty high according to their newsletter, and the unofficial fb page reflects that too.

The vaccination team came in end of September, and struggled to get through all that needed it in one day. They’ll have to come back to pick up the ones who still need it, but at the moment, no one seems to know when. They also have to squeeze in hpv and flu vaccinations, so they’re are going to be really stretched.

As other posters have said, what looks like low take up is probably largely due to availability problems and the fact it’s too late for the kids who’ve caught covid in the 28 days before.

@Pru24
“You can also twist their original comment as much as you want, they clearly said the benefits do not outweigh the risks as children in general are less effected by covid.”

They didn’t say that though. I’ve attached a screenshot from their report where they say “Overall, the committee is of the opinion that the benefits from vaccination are marginally greater than the potential known harms”.

The part that may be confusing you is where they go on to say that while myocarditis after the vaccine appears to get better quickly and with minimal treatment, they’re not sure if it would leave long term problems. Fair enough, you might think. But they haven’t considered the risk of myocarditis after covid, which is higher than the risk of myocarditis after the vaccine. My ds unfortunately had this after covid, and still has heart problems caused by covid he caught back in March 2020. To me, it’s very bloody obvious that covid can cause long term damage, there are plenty of reports documenting that. The risk from the vaccine is much lower, in my opinion, than the risk from covid. Which is easy for me to say as the evidence lives in my house

It’s not an issue with the students or parents, but the roll out itself.
We were promised ten health care professionals to vaccinate children n our allotted day, but only 4 turned up. So we vaccinated less than half who had returned consent forms.
There are no plans for the vaccination team to come back.
It’s been a massive shit show here!

I would take that story with a pinch of salt, some areas = 1 area which has only rolled out to one school no doubt. All the teens at work have been jabbed, drs are returning to the school next week for those whose parents didn't do the paperwork quick enough

But we only have one high school and vaccination rates for 18+ are over 95% here

[quote BewareTheLibrarians]@Pru24
“You can also twist their original comment as much as you want, they clearly said the benefits do not outweigh the risks as children in general are less effected by covid.”

They didn’t say that though. I’ve attached a screenshot from their report where they say “Overall, the committee is of the opinion that the benefits from vaccination are marginally greater than the potential known harms”.

The part that may be confusing you is where they go on to say that while myocarditis after the vaccine appears to get better quickly and with minimal treatment, they’re not sure if it would leave long term problems. Fair enough, you might think. But they haven’t considered the risk of myocarditis after covid, which is higher than the risk of myocarditis after the vaccine. My ds unfortunately had this after covid, and still has heart problems caused by covid he caught back in March 2020. To me, it’s very bloody obvious that covid can cause long term damage, there are plenty of reports documenting that. The risk from the vaccine is much lower, in my opinion, than the risk from covid. Which is easy for me to say as the evidence lives in my house [/quote]
You think they haven’t considered the risk of myocarditis after covid??? Oh and you have I suppose. They will have scrutinised every aspect and angle for months! They are not just a bunch of randoms chatting during a coffee morning!

In my son’s class (sw London), the vast majority elected to have the vaccine.

Our local secondary schools have just been shut down because of the spread of covid. Everyone is back to learning from home. If they had all been double vaccinated like in the US/EU then this wouldn't be happening!

Both my teens made Gillick competent choices to have it. It it was my decision I would have wanted them to. Nearly all their friends have had it too.

You think they haven’t considered the risk of myocarditis after covid???

Do they mention any long term complications post COVID such as myocarditis in their report? Do they make parents equally aware of this as they do then”potential long term risks” of the vaccine?

Oh and you have I suppose.

Yeah, I have. I didn’t really have a choice, given my son’s situation.

They will have scrutinised every aspect and angle for months! They are not just a bunch of randoms chatting during a coffee morning!

I’m sure they’re not a bunch of randoms. But given that the MHRA and CMO gave it the ok, and the JCVI didn’t bother to explain or mitigate for any long term complications of covid I’m happy to go with the CMO’s advice.

Why do people who don’t want their kids to have this vaccine get so angry that my son got ill with covid? I mean, sorry but it’s worse for him than it is for you

I think this is yet another example of how MN is not the real world.