Will you be vaxxing your 5 year old kids?

[WoolyMammoth55]

I'm pro vaccine, have had 3 myself, DH has had 2 and has booked his booster. Our kids are vaccinated according to the normal schedule.

However we have a 4yo and something about the thought of vaccinating him for Covid once he turns 5 feels really wrong to me.

I haven't really got much to go on, although this article about teens and vaccine side-effects is part of it:
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/10/boys-more-at-risk-from-pfizer-jab-side-effect-than-covid-suggests-study

Basically I just feel like we know some people react badly to the jab, it's not a perfect medicine because it was developed and rolled out under huge pressure. We know kids are at minimal risk of Covid and so it's not for their benefit they'd get jabbed, it'd be to stop them infecting grandparents... To me it feels like the wrong risk-to-benefit ratio for our children.

And I'm fully aware that if we don't get them jabbed, we'll be vax-passport-ed into a second-class existence! This is already happening to my DSis who lives abroad in a vaccine passport country and despite her and her DH being jabbed, they are under house arrest because their 2 kids - who can't be jabbed yet - aren't allowed to go anywhere!

Talk me out of this feeling of dread, anyone...?

A hard NO from me. An FDA document states that there weren’t enough trial participants while testing 5-11 year olds to determine the long term risk of myocarditis. For this reason they will be carrying out a POST authorisation safety study of 5 years - unacceptable.

@Lalalablahblahblah

We do have full visibility of the harm that can be done by Covid to children and that data is rounded down to 0

Sorry but we really don't. It's not exactly unheard of for a virus to appear mild and then have devastating unexpected long term complications. HIV, HPV?

Not unheard of, but at a population level those very rare cases mean it can be rounded down to zero

Although did you say HIV?

I've not heard of this - what are you referring to?

Just imagine if you choose not to vaccinate, when official guidance is that you should, and something happens to your child. Perhaps they get a worse reaction due to the new strain or end up with long covid. I’m not sure how you’d live with yourself knowing you made the decision not to have them vaccinated.

What's the official guidance?

I actually very nearly added the same ones who get it,I'm pretty sure would have also paid for chicken pox vaccine! grin

I've actually paid for the chicken pox vaccine but wouldn't give DS a covid vaccine right now if he were 5 (he's only 3, so I might feel differently in two years' time - we'll have a lot more data).

But actually it's sort of for the same underlying logic - the NHS's reason not to give the chicken pox vaccine is to lower the number of elderly people getting shingles, and I think it's shit to let children get an actually often quite unpleasant illness 'altruistically'. For the same reason, while I've had happily had all my vaccines and will have my booster 'for the greater good', I don't want/feel it's right to make decisions for my children that aren't actually for their own good unless it's clear that it's completely harmless to them.

God no and I will match alongside wack job Piers Corbyn if there are restrictions based on a child needing to be vaccinated.

No. I have two primary school aged DC, they both had Covid in the summer and it was very mild for them. I'm unvaccinated and DH is double vaccinated. Neither of us tested positive.

No I don't think I will.

Triple vaccinated myself, fully understand the need for it but I don't know enough yet. Plus they've both had covid recently.

I need more evidence and the official guidance is sketchy to say the least.

This is the guidance I've read

"For otherwise healthy 12 to 15 year old children, their risk of severe COVID-19 disease is small and therefore the potential for benefit from COVID-19 vaccination is also small. The JCVI’s view is that overall, the health benefits from COVID-19 vaccination to healthy children aged 12 to 15 years are marginally greater than the potential harms.
Taking a precautionary approach, this margin of benefit is considered too small to support universal COVID-19 vaccination for this age group at this time. The committee will continue to review safety data as they emerge."

Certainly not black & white imo

DS is 10 and if he's OK with it yes. I Want him to see his big brother before he (big brother) dies. None of us have seen him since March 2020.

Yep i will, i trust the vaccines, have had 2 AZ's and a Moderna.
My 5yr old has had all her usual vaccines plus chicken pox, typhoid and hep b (for travel) i'll do what i can to keep her protected.

Probably not (99% sure he’s already had it along with the vast majority of school aged children) but I guess if omicron does seem to be particularly bad for children I will think about it quite seriously.

Mine are 6 and 10 and both boys, and haven’t had Covid as far as I know, so these are the factors specific to me and my choice.

Based on the current evidence, I would. Myocarditis in boys post-vaccine seems to peak around 16-19, with much lower risk (from the already lower risk) in lower ages so I’d much rather my boys get a level of immunity when they’re younger and the risk appears to be lower. It’s also based on the current evidence around relative myocarditis risk from Covid infection v vaccines.

This is based on the idea that Covid will be with us for a long old time, that younger immune systems generally mount better immune responses than older ones (eg vaccine effectiveness against chicken pox is much higher when the vaccine is given in childhood than in teens and adults; obviously we don’t know the data for the Covid vaccine yet.) I’m also worried about the potential for new variants, and as an immigrant whose family is all in a country with a pretty tough approach to borders and vaccines, there is an element for me of wanting to make sure my kids can see their relatives that won’t be a factor for many others.

They also get the flu vaccine, and my youngest has had the chicken pox vaccine.

It’s a really personal decision, and I’d of course look closely at the most recent data if and when this becomes a choice for us. But based on the current balance of known and likely risks, I’d fall on the side of vaccinating.

No. I would need to reconsider if they were barred from education or public places but if it was a simple choice I wouldn't.

And I’ve also paid for chicken pox as per PPs but not convinced about Covid vaccine.

NO NO AND NO AGAIN! Not in a million years even though i'm vaxxed myself

@Lalalablahblahblah

We do have full visibility of the harm that can be done by Covid to children and that data is rounded down to 0

Sorry but we really don't. It's not exactly unheard of for a virus to appear mild and then have devastating unexpected long term complications. HIV, HPV?

Exactly. I believe that covid was linked last year to children presenting with type 1 diabetes. These things can take a while to become clear, more so than with a vaccine that is under more scrutiny than any other in living memory.

I wasn’t going to as I had side effects but I think inevitably children are going to end up needing to be vaccinated to go to Europe for next five years or so. Therefore I think I’d rather he had the child dose as it’s one third of the dose twelve year olds get.

No way, children aren’t there to protect adults and there is very little evidence of children getting seriously ill. My 2 had it and barely noticed it, for that reason I am not vaccinating my 12 year old either

No

10 years down the line, when they are on the *th generation vaccine and have lots of longitudinal data demonstrating a clear risk/benefit ratio in favour of it for that age group, I will, but definitely not now.

Yes, of course. I haven’t heard a logical argument against vaccines for kids so far. They are vaccinated all the time ( you little red book in the UK is a case in point). Arguing about longitudinal effects from data seems a mute point given past evidence from vaccine campaigns to eradicate polio and similar.

I work in public health, without even talking about the risks of having this vaccine and just looking at the benefits to this age group they are minimal. The vaccine mainly protects against serious illness, children don't get seriously ill, in fact many don't even experience any symptoms. The vaccine takes the chances of catching covid down to about 40%, so even with the vaccine they can still catch covid. Children are also not very good at transmitting it (despite what the government say, the data says otherwise) so the risk of children spreading it is lower than adults. Then if you look at how long a covid vaccine will protect a child for vs immunity after actually having covid, the vaccine will be effective for around 3 months vs 12 months if they have just caught covid. So as you can see the benefits are pretty marginal and short lived for a disease that is very unlikely to cause them any harm at all. It doesn't really make much sense to vaccinate this group.

I've had 2 jabs and will be having a booster, my children won't be.