The United Kingdom's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised against giving healthy children aged 12-15 a COVID-19 vaccination shot until more information could be made available about the vaccine's medium and long-term effects.
"The JCVI's view is that overall, the health benefits from COVID-19 vaccination to healthy children aged 12 to 15 years are marginally greater than the potential harms," Wei Shen Lim, Chair of COVID-19 Immunisatino for the JCVI was quoted as saying.Â
"Taking a precautionary approach, this margin of benefit is considered too small to support universal COVID-19 vacination for this agr group at this time," he said, adding that safety data would be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
The concerns stem from a rare side effect of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that causes heart inflammation, one that is seen in less than just over a hundred cases out of 177 million doses, accoridng to a European Medicines Agency analysis in June.
However, those with underlying conditions will be eligible-an estimated 200,000 teenagers. These include those with chronic heart, lung and liver conditions. Around 150,000 children with conditions like severe neurodisabilities, Down's syndrome and severely weakened immune systems, and those who live with vulnerable adults, are already eligible.
Just days prior, the Department of Health had said it wanted to be "ready to hit the ground running" after approval to innoculate 12-15 year olds comes from vaccine advisors. In June, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in adolescents aged 12-15, noting that its safety in this age group would have to be monitored.
