LONDON: The British vaccine advisor said they did not recommend vaccination of all children aged 12 to 15 years against Covid-19, preferring the prevention approach to healthy children because of uncertainty over a rare side impact.
The advice could see England pursue a different approach with the United States, Israel and several European countries, which pursued vaccination of the wider age group.
But the final decision has not been taken, because the government said he would consult with a medical advisor to see other factors, such as school problems.
Many politicians have spoken supporting more children’s vaccination.
The UK has reported more than 133,000 deaths from Covid-19 and nearly 7 million cases, and while transmission among children can be high, they rarely get seriously ill from this disease.
The combined committee on vaccination and immunization (JCVI) on Friday said children with fundamental conditions that make them more risky of Covid-19 must be vaccinated.
For others, there are small benefits from receiving Covid-19 vaccination.
However, it is said that despite the reports of heart inflammation, known as myocarditis, in young people after vaccination with pfizer shots are usually mild, prefer to wait more information about the medium and long-term effects of these conditions before recommending vaccines for healthy children.
“The view of JCVI is overall, the health benefits of Covid-19 vaccination for healthy children aged 12 to 15 are slightly larger than the potential danger,” said Wei Shen Lim, chairman of Covid-19 immunization for JCVI.
“Taking a prudential approach, this benefit margin is considered too small to support Universal Covid-19 vaccination for this age group today,” he said, adding that safety data would be reviewed sustainably.
JCVI said it would expand the feasibility for Covid-19 vaccination to more than 12 to 15 years with the underlying health conditions, emphasizing that most of the few children treated at the hospital with Covid-19 had such conditions.
The committee is also expected to provide further advice on potential booster vaccine programs for the elderly and vulnerable ones that can be started this month.
“We have been waiting for the data to formulate a final decision about the enhancer, which I think everyone should expect to hear about a few days ahead,” JCVI member Adam Finn, a pediatrician at the University of Bristol, told Reuters.