elbows
Well-Known Member
JCVI has issued a statement on vaccinating children:
It goes on a bit so I've only quoted the first bit.Children aged 5 to 11 years in a clinical risk group (as defined in the Green Book), or who are a household contact of someone who is immunosuppressed (as defined in the Green Book), should be offered two 10 micrograms doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty®) with an interval of 8 weeks between the first and second doses. The minimum interval between any vaccine dose and recent COVID-19 infection should be 4 weeks.
Further advice regarding COVID-19 vaccination for other 5 to 11 year olds will be issued in due course following consideration of additional data. Data being sought includes:
- updated estimates of the proportion of children aged 5 to 11 years who have already been infected
- the level of protection afforded against COVID-19 disease due to the Omicron variant from previous SARS-CoV-2 infection
- post-marketing adverse event reporting data from the international use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in those aged 5 to 11 years
- considerations from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and other government departments on the potential educational impacts (both benefits and disbenefits) of COVID-19 vaccination in those aged 5 to 11 years
Booster vaccination of 12 to 17 year olds
The following cohorts of children and young people should be offered a booster dose of 30 micrograms Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty®) no sooner than 3 months after completion of their primary course:
Prioritisation of booster vaccination within eligible cohorts should generally be in the order of descending age groups, or clinical risk, whichever is more expedient. Boosting of children in clinical risk groups should commence after the equivalent clinical risk adult groups; higher age is independently associated with a higher risk of complications from COVID-19 and these adults will have received their primary vaccinations earlier in the vaccine programme.
- children and young people aged 16 to 17 years
- children and young people aged 12 to 15 who are in a clinical risk group or who are a household contact of someone who is immunosuppressed
- children and young people aged 12 to 15 years who are severely immunosuppressed and who have had a third primary dose