War over Covid jabs for 12-year-olds: Ministers are 'frustrated' at experts' delay in approving child vaccine doses amid pandemic fight

Senior ministers are said to be increasingly embittered at the failure of Government experts to authorise the rollout of Covid vaccines to under-16s.

A Whitehall source said there was ‘palpable frustration’ among Government figures with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation , which has so far not approved the jab.

Both Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Sajid Javid are said to be keen to get on with vaccinating secondary school children.

Ministers fear the new academic year will trigger a fresh wave of the virus in classrooms.

This means that without a jab, children could face more disruption to their education throughout autumn and winter.

But the JCVI, which is independent of Government, yesterday warned that a decision on the issue was ‘finely balanced’, with one senior committee member bristling at the idea that it should respond to political pressure.

Senior ministers, including Prime Minister Both Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Sajid Javid , are said to be keen to get on with vaccinating secondary school children but the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations has yet to approve them for under-16s

Another said the committee would not be bounced into vaccinating younger children just because many other countries were now doing so.

France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and the US are among the nations now offering jabs to children aged 12 to 15. Norway yesterday followed suit.

UK medical regulators cleared the Pfizer jab for use on 12- to 15-year-olds in June, declaring it ‘safe and effective in this age group’.

The Moderna vaccine was also authorised last month.

Ministers had hoped to vaccinate children during the school holidays to prevent a repeat of the massive disruption seen in schools over the past 18 months.

However, with schools already going back this week and next, hundreds of thousands of pupils will be mixing for weeks before any rollout is approved by the JCVI – if it is approved at all.

Ministers fear the new academic year will trigger a fresh wave of the virus in classrooms

Last night one Whitehall source admitted: ‘There is palpable frustration that this is taking so long. The jabs have been approved for months, other countries have been doing it safely for months – we are becoming an outlier.

In the meantime, we have missed the window of opportunity in the summer and the schools are going back.’

Meanwhile, in a clear sign of the enthusiasm for the jab among teenagers, figures showed half of 16- and 17-year-olds have already had a vaccine dose in just four weeks.

It also emerged that the JCVI is ‘highly likely’ to recommend booster jabs for millions of older adults in the next few weeks – but members were much more reticent about approving jabs for those aged 12 to 15.

So far, only younger teenagers with underlying health conditions can be jabbed. And the JCVI announced late on Wednesday that it was recommending a ‘third dose’ for 500,000 people with very suppressed immune systems.

It came as the UK recorded 38,154 new cases and a further 178 deaths. Cases in Scotland have soared since schools returned last month, with infections among children now higher than ever.

Government Ministers had hoped to vaccinate children during the school holidays to prevent a repeat of the massive disruption seen in schools over the past 18 months (stock image)

Publicly, Downing Street insists the matter is purely for the JCVI. But while another Whitehall source said the JCVI had ‘done a great job’ at the start of the vaccination programme, they acknowledged the length of time taken by the committee over children was frustrating.

‘Everything is in place to get this rolled out,’ the source said. ‘We just need a decision.’

Speaking at the weekend, Mr Javid said vaccinating all teenagers would ‘solidify our wall of protection’.

The move is also backed by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who has warned that countries like Malta are already insisting all over-12s must quarantine on arrival unless they have been fully vaccinated.

A Government source has predicted take-up among younger children would be as high as 16- and 17-year-olds, if and when the green light is given.

Yesterday however, the JCVI’s deputy chairman Anthony Harnden told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘There’s many, many arguments for and against giving vaccines to 12- to 15-year-olds, and we’re deliberating on what we think as a committee is best for children.

‘And that is the key thing: whatever we decide, we will do it in the children’s best interests no matter what other people outside the committee think.’

Professor Harnden said it was ultimately ‘up to ministers’ to decide whether to vaccinate children, but added: ‘We will give some very strong advice.’

The medical director of Public Health England, Dr Yvonne Doyle, moved to reassure parents yesterday, saying schools are not the ‘drivers’ of infection in communities. 

She said: ‘There’ll be extra cleaning and hygiene, advice on ventilation the testing is extremely important.’

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has warned it is ‘highly likely’ that infection rates in schools will surge by the end of September, and has urged ministers to come up with a plan for coping.

Meanwhile, plans for the rollout of jabs to under-16s are well advanced – pending JCVI approval.

It is likely that both parents and children will be asked to give consent.

As a GP, I'd allow all three of my kids to have the vaccine

Comment by Dr Nighat Arif

Covid vaccines have been a remarkable success, but if we are to enhance public safety and return to normality, we must build on that achievement.

That means not only the provision of booster jabs to maintain their effectiveness – particularly in the face of new variants – but also, just as crucially, the extension of the programme to children.

At present, jabs are offered to those over 12 only if they are clinically vulnerable, but I strongly believe coverage should be extended to include a much bigger age range, including healthy youngsters, just as the US, Brazil, China and Germany are doing.

Based on hard evidence from around the world, the case for this policy is irrefutable.

For a start, it would reduce the seriousness of the disease’s impact and the potential for long-term complications.

Pictured: Dr Nighat Arif who says she would vaccinate all three of her children

It is true that children are at the lowest risk from the virus, but my colleagues and I are now seeing growing numbers of cases of ‘Long Covid’ in children – which can lead to months of chronic fatigue, breathlessness, chest tightness and painful headaches.

I am currently dealing with one patient, a 15-year-old boy who – until Covid struck – had only a mild form of asthma, and whose management involved regular medication and an annual check-up.

Now, after contracting the virus, he is facing a much more difficult immediate future. As his condition has worsened, he has been hospitalised with pneumonia and even put on a ventilator. If he had been vaccinated, it is unlikely any of this would have happened.

In addition to giving individual protection, the inoculation of children would cut the transmission of the disease to the wider community, helping to build defensive shields around families, schools and beyond, and reducing the risk of new variants developing.

That would be good news for everyone, especially the most vulnerable adults.

Vaccines for all are the best kind of preventative medicine and the surest route to the goal of herd immunity.

Indeed, I wish I could give them to my three children as a means of mutual protection in our home – a vital concern because my six-year-old son is highly vulnerable, having had a liver transplant.

But, like all under-12s and regardless of circumstances, he is ineligible at present.

There is far too much lurid, paranoid scaremongering about vaccines for children.

Ever since Edward Jenner conquered smallpox in the 18th century with the world’s first vaccine, the science of immunisation has been well explored and understood.

For the purpose of improving public health, we already safely administer a number of other vaccines to children from infancy, starting with the Rotavirus jab from just eight weeks, followed by the MMR at one year (with a booster at three years old) and then the flu nasal drops given annually from two.

So where is the logic in suddenly drawing a line at a Covid vaccine? Far from protecting children, misplaced anxiety about vaccines can have a devastating impact, as shown by the scare in the late 1990s over the MMR jab, when it was falsely linked to autism.

The fall in inoculations led to severe outbreaks of measles and mumps, the latter an illness which I thought had been largely eliminated in Britain, and which can have devastating side-effects and in rare cases cause death.

We cannot allow the same to happen with Covid. Nor is that what the wider public – more sensible than the anti-vaxxers – want.

One recent survey by the Office for National Statistics showed that 90 per cent of parents would ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ agree to inoculate their child.

Apart from the worrying health implications of vaccine hesitancy, there are also the economic and social consequences.

A failure to use every possible medical resource against Covid means that we will have to resort to other methods to contain the disease.

In practice, that will require a return to draconian lockdowns and restrictions, thereby hurting the economy with all the knock-on effects that follow.

The disruption to our children’s education and social relationships has a profound impact on their life chances and, of course, their mental health.

As a society, we should be moving in precisely the opposite direction, towards greater freedom – and vaccines for children can help get us there.

We know vaccines protect lives and prevent severe disease. Let’s extend their use.

Dr Nighat Arif is a GP in Buckinghamshire and a regular contributor to BBC Breakfast