The UK chooses not to vaccinate most under-18s against COVID-19

The British government has decided not to inoculate most children and adolescents against COVID-19 until more safety data on vaccines are available.

Children up to the age of 12 with severe neuro-disabilities, Down syndrome, immunosuppression and multiple or severe learning disabilities, as well as those who are family contacts of immunosuppressed individuals, will be eligible for vaccination, he said Monday. government.

The decision to suspend the shooting of most people under the age of 18 was based on the recommendation of an expert advisory group. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Vaccination said the health benefits of universal vaccination do not outweigh the risks for most young people, who usually suffer from only mild symptoms of the virus.

“Until more security data is available and evaluated, a precautionary approach is preferred” JCVI said in a statement.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said in a statement that “current councils do not recommend vaccinating children under 18 without underlying health conditions at this time.

“But the JCVI will continue to review new data and consider whether it is recommended to vaccinate under-18s without underlying health conditions at a future date.”

The decision not to vaccinate most young people puts the UK in conflict with France and several other European countries, which have decided to vaccinate teenagers up to 12 years old.

On Friday, among hundreds of people from a vaccination center in Paris, there were about twenty teenagers with their parents. The French government announced last week that it plans to set up vaccine tests at middle schools, institutes and universities in the autumn.

In the UK, children and adolescents eligible for inoculation will receive the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, the only UK authority authorized to use it in children under 18 years of age. Oxford University is still conducting safety and efficacy tests on children of the vaccine it developed with AstraZeneca.

Aside from medical and scientific issues related to the use of COVID-19 vaccines by adolescents, many public health experts have raised questions about the morality of inoculating low-risk children at a time when many people most vulnerable in the world do not yet have access to vaccines.

Professor Andrew Pollard, who played a key role in the development of the AstraZeneca vaccine, told Parliament’s science and technology committee last month that priority should be given to vulnerable adults elsewhere than children.

“It’s the older adults, those with other health conditions and the health care workers who care for them, who should have priority,” he said.

The Oxford trial should help policymakers decide whether they want to extend mass vaccination programs to children at some point in the future, as they try to ensure the safety of schools and combat the spread of the virus in the population more wide, Pollard said.

The announcement came on what the government called “Freedom Day”, the day most of the remaining COVID-19 restrictions were removed across England. Bars and restaurants can now run at full capacity and nightclubs are reopening for the first time in 16 months.

The government decided to lift the restrictions because 88% of the adult population has received at least one dose of vaccine and more than two-thirds are fully vaccinated. Although infections increase rapidly, the high level of vaccination means that fewer people become seriously ill than during the first waves of the virus.

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