5yo offered vaccine - no idea why

[Sprogonthetyne]

I had a phone call from the gp earlier today asking me if I wanted to book 5 year old DS in for a covid vaccine. We were out at the time so I just made the appointment without giving it much thought, but now I've thought about it I'm a little confused.

DS has no health conditions, so shouldn't be listed as medicaly vulnerable. He has autism but is not heavily affected, attends mainstream school, and doesn't have any co-morbid conditions. Would that be enough for him to be considered vulnerable, or have they made a mistake, and if so do I need to get in touch to query it?

I'm happy enough for him to have it if/when it's recommended, as with all vaccines, I'm just not sure he meets the current criteria.

The list of eligible conditions is on page 21 here.

The autism reference is: “neuro-disability and/or neuromuscular disease that may occur as a result of conditions such as cerebral palsy, autism, epilepsy and muscular dystrophy”.

So an autistic person has to have a neurodisability resulting from their autism. Does this apply to your DC?

No I don't think it does, he'scertainlynever been described as such. His autism doesn't have any affect on his physical health. He also doesn't have a learning disability, he has difficulties around concentration and behaviour but is academically able.

As a side note I'm a little alarmed they felt the need to include pregnancy in the list of conditions for 5-11 year olds.

I think it would be worth checking with your GP that your DS definitely qualifies - I’d specifically ask about eligibility under the green book. I think autistic people (or maybe just autistic 12-15s?) were previously all eligible but the definition changed, so it’s possible your GP hasn’t caught up.

Re pregnancy - that table lists eligibility for 5-15s, not just 5-11s, so I think that’s less odd that pregnancy is included.

If an 11 year old and under are having periods then they could get pregnant, so not really an unexpected question if you knew how some people live, unfortunately.