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Medical experts questioned over 12-15 vaccinations

With the roll out of vaccinations for 12 to 15-year-olds beginning this week, medical experts appeared before the House of Commons Education Select Committee to explain the decision to vaccinate this group. 

Among the medical experts were Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty, his deputy Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, and Chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), Professor Wei Shen Lim.

Robert Halfon MP, Chair of the select committee, asked about what the most important factor was in deciding to vaccinate 12 to 15-year-olds, mentioning the need to reduce disruption, and support children’s mental health.

Professor Chris Whitty made it clear that the starting point of the advice from the JCVI is that vaccinations provide marginally greater benefits to children than potential known harms. However, it had not been in the remit of JCVI to consider the wider societal impacts of not vaccinating, such as loss of education due to disruption. 

Secondly, Professor Whitty said that in taking the decision, the CMOs had taken substantial care to keep decisions firmly in the middle of medical opinion. On schooling, he said he had held to his consistent position, that multiple sources of evidence show that a lack of schooling increases inequalities, reduces life chances, and exacerbates mental and physical health issues.

This had been an important consideration in the decision to vaccinate school students. While Professor Whitty said that vaccines are not the silver bullet to ending Covid-related disruption, they will help, reducing risks both to the individual health of students and also reducing transmissions.

Professor Van-Tam reiterated that no one within the CMO group disagreed with the JCVI, but that they had to also consider the impact of continued disruption, with high rates of transmission within school-aged groups. In particular, he raised concerns about those in important stages of their education career (such as Yr 11s and 13s) who would suffer most from having to be out of school if they caught Covid.

Professor Wei Shen Lim said that there were two very small risks in balance for school-aged children, from severe illness from Covid-19, and side-effects from the vaccine. He emphasised the low risks, noting that this is why the JCVI has said it is safe for children to be back in school, and that all Covid vaccines are overwhelmingly safe.

Covid-related disruption has been a major obstacle to the provision of education. The North East has seen particularly high levels of disruption, especially towards the end of the summer term last year where our region saw more Covid-related absences than any other region. 

Efforts to reduce that disruption are vital to ensure schools can return to classroom teaching, support students in academic ‘catch-up’, and in their mental health and wellbeing. Vaccinations on school sites has meant school staff have been caught in the crossfire in disagreements between parents and students. 

Those giving evidence to the committee made it clear that it was not schools rolling out the vaccine, but the school age immunisation service, and that strict confidentiality would be maintained to ensure no stigmatisation would take place.

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