Children aged 5-11 not to be offered Covid jab unless clinically vulnerable

Scientific advisers to the government have recommended against vaccinating five- to 11-year-olds for the time being, with only those children deemed clinically vulnerable set to be offered a Covid jab.

The decision comes as a surprise after insiders in the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation had indicated that the body was ready to follow the example of the US and European Union in vaccinating all over-fives.

Roughly 330,000 children who are in a clinical risk group or live with an immunosuppressed adult should be offered two smaller doses of the Pfizer vaccine, with an eight-week gap between the first and second jab, the JCVI has said.

The vaccine watchdog said that it will continue to examine the vaccine safety data for five- to 11-year-olds and indicated that it could still approve the mass vaccination of this age group in the New Year.

It also recommended booster vaccinations be rolled out among all over-16s, clinically vulnerable over-12s and severely immunocompromised 12- to 15-year-olds who have already received a third primary dose.

“The majority of children aged five to 11 are at very low risk of serious illness due to Covid-19. However, some five- to 11-year-olds have underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk, and we advise these children to be vaccinated in the first instance,” said Professor Wei Shen Lim, the JCVI chair of Covid-19 immunisation.

“For children and young people who have completed a primary course of vaccination, a booster dose will provide added protection against the Omicron variant.”

The JCVI’s recommendation has been based on the benefits and risks of vaccinating children themselves, rather than the wider impacts on transmission in society.

It comes after Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) concluded that the Pfizer vaccine is safe and effective to use in children aged over five.

June Raine, the chief executive of the MHRA, said: “Parents and carers can be reassured that no new vaccine for children would have been approved unless the expected standards of safety, quality and effectiveness have been met.

“We have concluded that the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective for five- to 11-year olds, with no new safety concerns identified.”

Children are to be offered two 10-microgram doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which are a third of the size of the regular shot given to an adult.

The JCVI is waiting for further data on the effectiveness of the current jabs against the Omicron variant before it makes a final decision, not expected before the end of January, on whether to vaccinate all over-fives.

However, some scientists have reacted with anger to the recommendation, highlighting that more than seven million children from this age group have already been safely vaccinated against Covid in the US and across Europe.

“There is substantial data on the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines,” said Dr Deepti Gurdasani, a clinical epidemiologist at Queen Mary University London.

“Given the current crisis, and the high continuing exposure of children, it makes no sense that the UK is once again enacting exceptional policies that do not offer protection to children.”

Children have recorded some of the highest Covid case rates throughout the pandemic. The most recent estimates from the Office for National Statistics show that 5.5 per cent of all under-12s tested positive for Covid in the week ending 11 December.

This has coincided with continuing disruption to education. On 9 December, 236,000 pupils did not attend school for Covid-related reasons, up from 208,000, according to data published by the Department for Education.

The risk of death, hospitalisation and serious illness in children is far lower than the adult population, though research has suggested that up to one in seven children infected with Covid may have lingering symptoms linked to the virus 15 weeks later.

“Children have seen mass educational disruption over the past year because of high rates of infection,” said Dr Gurdasani. “Sadly, these have also translated to higher levels of long Covid” which has “doubled in children over four months up to the end of October”.