U.K. to offer vaccines to children aged 12-15
Children aged 12 to 15 should be offered a COVID vaccine, the U.K.’s chief medical officers (CMOs) have decided. The medical officers said their recommendation to the government was made after considering “what effect this will have on transmission in schools and effects on education”.
They added that healthy children should be offered a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine “as soon as possible”, saying that the vaccines are “a useful tool to reduce the disruption” of children missing school”.
The vaccine is likely to be given in schools and parents will be asked to give consent. The CMOs said, “on balance”, the benefits in reducing disruption and the harm it caused, including to mental health, provided “sufficient extra advantage” to warrant extending vaccination to healthy children in this age group.
