5 - 11 year olds to be allowed vaccine in wales

[RedToothBrush]

Adrian Masters @adrianmasters84
1/3 The health minister has confirmed that children aged between 5 and 11 year olds here in Wales will be offered covid vaccinations.

2/3 Eluned Morgan told Senedd Members: “Whilst yet to be published officially by the JCVI, I have received JCVI advice regarding the vaccination of all 5-11 year olds and I have agreed it and we are working with health boards on implementing the offer.”

3/3 There’s been a delay to the official announcement, reportedly because of disagreements between the UK Government and the JCVI. Although it’s thought to have made its decision more than a week ago, the recommendation is not expected to be announced until the 21st February.

I'm in England so I don't know which why the government will go for England on this yet, but it looks likely that all 5 to 11 year olds will be offered the vaccine on a not urgent basis.

I'm not entirely sure how i feel about this nor what i will do.

Its not an issue with travel to most places (there are places its now an issue though) and there are potential implications for travel insurance (you may not be covered for covid related healthcare if you have been offered the vaccine).

I don't know if having it purely for travel purposes in this age group is a good thing or not.

DS is 7. He has had covid.

Genuinely don't know what we will do.

There is always the prospect of a new variant and whether being vaxxed is better for children.

In terms of disruption to school, i think the horse has well and truly bolted on that one.

I don't think im alone in thinking like this and will struggle to know what to do.

[quote Nerdygirl]So when it comes to jcvi based on their recommendations you need to vaccinate 4 million children this age group to avoid 1 in ICU.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/jcvi-update-on-advice-for-covid-19-vaccination-of-children-aged-5-to-11/jcvi-statement-on-vaccination-of-children-aged-5-to-11-years-old[/quote]
The relatively small benefits are why their main argument against is that it isn't justified purely based the costs of roll out.

However as they state:

Overall, the committee agreed that the potential health benefits of vaccination are greater than the potential health risks when not including the opportunity costs of a programme to vaccinate all children aged 5 to 11 due to this being part of a pandemic response.

If it's being offered, the costs of rollout are sunk. So in my opinion, you may as well benefit from it. Others may see this differently and take an ideological perspective.

I don't think JVCI intend for this to go ahead tbh. That's why it's described as non urgent and delayed until April. If things stabalise, Omicron remains dominant in April and we move from 'pandemic' to 'endemic' phase as hoped, it will no longer be justifiable. They say:

"As the COVID-19 pandemic moves further towards endemicity in the UK, JCVI will review whether, in the longer term, an offer of vaccination to this, and other paediatric age groups, continues to be advised"

However, this recommedation will hopefully mean we're in a position to roll-out the vaccine quickly to the 5+ in the event a more agressive variant in the future.

Do people still think that “being in icu” or death is the only negative outcome of covid? It’s not, obviously, but that would explain the hesitation.

@BewareTheLibrarians
And do you believe that there is zero risk from the jab?

@SoOvethis Of course there’s not zero risk, and honestly this “oh you believe X so you also think Y!!” is a bit frustrating. It’s not a black and white situation so there’s obviously not a black and white solution.

However, there have been two recorded post vaccine complications in this age group (US data). The number of children who get ill (a bit or a lot) after covid, who have problems after covid, whether that’s for a few weeks, or months/years is higher.

Some parents may look at that and think it’s worth getting their children vaccinated as the risk of any complications from the vaccine is low, while others may want to avoid any risk of the vaccine and are happy to rely on their child not being affected by covid.

The only thing that worries me is the people who don’t know that perfectly healthy children can be affected by covid. Because if they’re not hearing that, and only hearing the “vaccines bad!” narrative then they’re not fully informed to make the right decision for their families.

*blah should say - “less than two cases per million doses, both “mild” and self resolving apparently.”

Managed to edit the end of my sentence out. I’ve put “mild” in quotation marks as I’m sure it wasn’t an easy thing for the children and their families to go through.

@JassyRadlett

All adults have needed a booster, so how is one or 2 jabs going to protect children? I will not be vaccinating my children.

Adult immune response is generally worse than children’s. Have we seen data on how immunity in children holds up?

This article suggests immunity after the vaccine is poor for 5-11 year olds: unherd.com/thepost/new-pfizer-data-undermines-the-case-for-universal-child-covid-vaccines/ I’ve tried to find more information on the study quoted, and it does still recommend vaccination, while other articles mention the non vaccinated group doing better may be due to higher numbers of previous infections within that group.

That makes me think it is really not clear there is a strong enough reason to vaccinate young kids at this point in time, especially if they have already had covid, and the money and/ or vaccines could be much better used elsewhere.

Should explain I’ve heard letters giving kids vaccine appointments have been arriving locally so I’ve been furiously researching what to do for the best give my two under 11s have had covid about 6 months ago, and avoided a mass outbreak at their school last month, so would appear to have some level of immunity (literally ALL their friends had it).

What have folks in a similar position decided?