The government has ordered a review of teenage Covid vaccinations, after its immunisation advisers rejected calls for all 12-15 year-olds to get the jab.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation added another 200,000 children with underlying health conditions to the list of under-16s who can receive the Pfizer vaccine.
But its experts determined that while there was a marginal benefit to healthy 12-15 year-olds in receiving the vaccine, it was not sufficient for them to recommend universal inoculation of this age-group.
Ministers in the UK government and devolved administrations have now asked the UK’s four chief medical officers to conduct a review to determine whether non-health factors not assessed by the JCVI – such as the impact of lost educational time – might justify jabs for all teens.
The review is expected to report within a few days, and comes amid mounting political pressure for teenagers to be protected from coronavirus as schools return for the autumn term in England.
The government is understood not to be challenging the JCVI’s medical advice. But ministers believe that there are wider issues potentially affecting children’s well-being which lie outside the experts’ strict health remit.
It is understood, however, that the CMOs – including Prof Chris Whitty – will not be asked to consider whether vaccinating teenagers would have a health benefit for other parts of society, by protecting older people from the risk of infection. The review will focus solely on the interests of the 12-15 year-olds themselves.
Underlying health conditions which will now qualify 12-15 year-olds for the Pfizer jab include chronic heart, lung, kidney, liver and neurological problems. This will include children with those with sickle cell disease or type 1 diabetes.
Previously only children in this age group with severe neurodisabilities, Down’s syndrome, immunosuppression and multiple or severe learning disabilities were able to receive the vaccine.
The MHRA healthcare regulator has already approved the Pfizer and Moderna jabs on safety grounds for all those aged 12 and over.
As revealed in The Independent on Tuesday, the JCVI has resisted intense political pressure to clear the way for teenage jabs before schoolchildren returned to classrooms.
Downing Street said last week it hoped that the decision would come “as soon as possible”, and health secretary Sajid Javid wrote a newspaper article on Saturday to say it was
clear that “offering all teenagers the jab would solidify our wall of protection”.
Both the NHS and schools have prepared plans to vaccinate an estimated 3.9 million 12-15 year-olds and education secretary Gavin Williamson said they were “ready and eager” to get going on a programme likely to see school gyms and assembly halls turned into mass vaccine centres.
Mr Javid today said he was “grateful for the expert advice that I have received from the independent JCVI”.
But he added: “Along with health ministers across the four nations, I have today written to the chief medical officers to ask that they consider the vaccination of 12-15 year-olds from a broader perspective, as suggested by the JCVI.
“We will then consider the advice from the chief medical officers, building on the advice from the JCVI, before making a decision shortly.”
