City GP backs Covid jabs for teenagers

COVID jabs will be offered to all 16 and 17 year-olds “in a matter of weeks” under new vaccine plans.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has recommended extending the vaccination programme because it believes offering the vaccine could reduce transmission of the virus and limit disruption in schools.

Advice on when the second jab will be offered will come later, the JCVI added.

Dr Jason Seewoodhary, GP at Barbourne Medical Centre in Worcester, said: “Whilst the majority of healthy 16 and 17-year-olds would recover quickly from Covid with either minimal or no symptoms, there is a wider and collective public health benefit in extending the vaccination program to include this age group.

“This includes reducing the likelihood of younger people passing Covid onto others who are vulnerable, which in-turn lowers hospitalisation rates.

“Additionally, extending the vaccine roll-out significantly reduces the likelihood of Covid disrupting their schooling.”

“There is an extremely rare association between the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines with young adults developing a swelling of the heart muscle and the fluid-filled sac that lines and lubricates the heart muscle. These conditions are termed ‘myocarditis’ and ‘pericarditis’ respectively.

“Data gleaned from over 177 million vaccine doses has confirmed the risks of these conditions are very low at less than 1 in a million.

“Overall, the benefits of vaccinating are large and completely outweigh the theoretical risks of myocarditis and pericarditis.”

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer, said he expected the programme would start in “a very short number of weeks”.

“There is no time to waste in getting on with this,” he said. “I want us to proceed as fast as is practically possible.”
Children aged 12-17 have been eligible for the jab if they have underlying health conditions, but the new advice will see vaccinations rolled out to all 16 and 17-year-olds.

The only vaccine approved for under 18s in the UK is Pfizer/BioNTech.

Last month, the JCVI said it would not yet be recommending to open up jabs to 16 and 17-year-olds as it wanted time to examine the risks and benefits, as well as reports of rare adverse effects such as inflammation of heart muscles.