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By James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent
Image copyrightGetty ImagesHundreds of thousands of children at higher risk of coronavirus infection will be offered a Covid vaccine in the UK.
However, the vast majority of children will not be vaccinated.
Which children will the vaccine be offered to?
The evidence on the harms and benefits of vaccination has been reviewed by the United Kingdom Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI).
He recommended vaccinating children aged 12 to 15 if they are at higher risk of Covid due to:
- Severe neurohandicap (which may include conditions such as cerebral palsy, autism or epilepsy)
- Down syndrome
- A severely weakened immune system, including some children with cancer
- Profound and multiple learning difficulties
People at higher risk who are already 16 or 17 years old can be vaccinated according to the existing rules.
The JCVI also recommended vaccinating 12-17 year olds who live with people with weakened immune systems, as a form of indirect protection.
What about those who are almost 18?
Young people who are less than three months after the age of 18 will also be offered the jab.
Born in summer, they would be the youngest of their classes. The aim would be to protect them before going to university or starting to work.
What vaccine will they receive?
This will be the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
It is the only vaccine that has been approved for use in children in the UK. The drug and safety regulator has granted a license for the vaccine to be used in those over 12 years of age.
Image copyrightGetty ImagesIs the Covid vaccine safe for children?
No drug is completely safe and all are a balance of risks and benefits.
But the Pfizer jab would not have been approved for use in the UK had it not been considered safe.
The vaccine has been linked to incredibly rare cases of inflammation of the heart muscle (myocaritis) and the sac in which the heart beats (pericarditis). This was found to be more common in younger men and after a second dose.
But the European Medicines Agency – which approves vaccines for the European Union – says there have been one to two cases per million people who have received the vaccine. Almost everyone has made a full recovery.
What are other countries doing?
Many countries have already decided to vaccinate children over 12 years old, including Canada and Brazil.
The EU approved the Pfizer vaccine for those over 12 in May – after a study found a similar immune response in 12 to 15 year olds and 16 to 25 year olds. Children were also found to have the same common side effects, such as headaches.
Pfizer and Moderna are testing their vaccines on children as young as six months old.
Will all British children be offered the vaccine?
Government vaccine advisers say the benefits of vaccination are very small in healthy children. This is because so few children get seriously ill or die from Covid.
The JCVI also claims that the benefit for adults of vaccinating children (to limit the spread of Covid) is not clear because so many vulnerable people have already been immunized. It also states that there is no clear evidence that vaccinating children will prevent young people from contracting the long Covid.
However, JCVI is awaiting more safety and efficacy data to see if more children should be offered jabs.
There is currently no vaccine approved for use in children under 12 in the UK.
Image copyrightGetty ImagesHow many children have died from Covid?
Almost all children and young people are at very low risk of Covid-19.
Data for England suggests around 25 children died from Covid in the first 12 months of the pandemic.
The majority of them also had serious health problems, including complex neurological disorders.
Only six had no recorded health problems.
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