(13 Sep 2021) Britain’s chief medical officers said Monday that children aged 12 to 15 should be vaccinated against coronavirus, despite a ruling by the government’s vaccine advisors that the step would have only marginal health benefits.
England Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and his counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said Monday that the age group should be given a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
They have yet to decide on whether to give the students a second dose.
The government has said it's highly likely to follow the recommendation.
Expanded vaccinations are expected to be part of a "tool kit" to control COVID-19 infections this fall and winter that Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to announce Tuesday at a news conference.
Johnson's Conservative government is hoping that widespread vaccinations, rather than restrictions, will keep COVID-19 infections in check.
Other countries - including the United States, Canada, France and Italy - already offer coronavirus vaccines to children 12 and up, but Britain has held off.
It is currently inoculating people 16 and up, and almost 90% of those eligible have had at least one vaccine dose.
Professor Whitty added that it was critical that there should be "no stigmatization of people either for accepting or not accepting vaccination."
Speaking alongside Professor Whitty at the Downing Street press conference, Dr June Raine, of the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said the side effects of young people being vaccinated were "mild".
"Overall, the conclusion of our expert advisers is these are mild cases, individuals usually recover within a short period of time with standard treatment," she said.
Dr Gregor Smith, Scotland's Chief Medical Officer emphasised the importance to explaining the advantages of getting vaccinated to this age group in "child friendly terms" and that GPs were used to discussing issues of consent within local communities.
Earlier this month, Britain's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said vaccines should be given to 12- to 15-year-olds with underlying health conditions.
But it did not back a rollout to healthy children, who are at low risk of serious illness from the virus, saying the direct health benefits were marginal.
However, it said there might be wider societal factors to consider, such as on education or children acting as sources of transmission to more vulnerable groups.
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