Childhood Covid infections are rising in England – is low vaccination rates a factor? | Coronavirus

Covid cases in the UK have fallen sharply in recent weeks and hospital admissions appear to have taken a turn. But now, it seems, the situation has stalled, with cases hovering around 90,000 a day.

The reason for the change is that while case rates are falling in adults, they are rising in children – where vaccination rates remain slow.

According to data from England, the rate of new cases per 100,000 people fell from 1,430.4 among those aged 60 to 64 during the rolling seven-day period on January 1 to 529.3 during the rolling seven-day period on the 19 January. However, they fell from 941.6 to 2,384.1 for children aged 5 to 9 over the same period, and from 1,230 to 1,909.7 for children aged 10 to 14.

The latest attendance figures from the Department for Education show that 374,000 children were absent from school with confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections. In the last week before Christmas the figure was 199,000. However, these DfE figures do not include children who were absent after having a positive PCR test, who are counted separately as sick.

One intervention available for some children is vaccination. However, according to the latest data from the UK Health Security Agencythe absorption of the first doses slowed, with 52% of children aged 12 to 15 having received at least one Covid vaccine.

While vulnerable children from 5 to 11 years old are now eligible for Covid vaccinations, with a national roll-out planned for the end of January, some GPs are already kicking – although a lack of pediatric doses currently means this tends to occur where it is possible to use off-label split adult doses.

Professor Christina Pagel, director of the Clinical Operations Research Unit at University College London, said one of the reasons for the slow uptake of injections among adolescents is a lack of clear messages from from bodies such as the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), Cabinet and Chief Medical Officers that they should be vaccinated against Covid.

Pagel added that the long Covid and rare pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (PIMS-TS) are serious concerns, while the proportion of young children hospitalized with Covid has increased – although others have noted that most cases are ‘mild’ and may reflect the lower threshold for bringing infants to hospital.

“[It’s] almost as if there was this understandable desire to reassure, and it ends up minimizing [the importance of vaccination]said Pagel, adding that all children aged five and over should be offered the shots.

But others, like Professor Russell Viner of UCL, suggest that the slow uptake of injections is due to a host of factors ranging from logistical challenges to the initial offer of injections only as part of the program of school vaccination, and that while changing messaging may have led to some uncertainty among parents and children, this was the right approach to take, particularly given early concerns about myocarditis.

Professor Adam Finn, head of the Bristol Children’s Vaccine Center and member of the JCVI, said Covid is a mild disease of childhood, while evidence suggests long Covid is rarer, milder and less long-lasting than in adults.

Finn added that it is not surprising that vaccination rates are lower among adolescents than adults, noting that vaccines are “not so good” at preventing onward transmission and that adolescents have fewer Covid risks. While vaccinating healthy children aged five to 11 is being discussed, it’s also a difficult decision, he said.

Such disagreements look set to continue. But one thing is clear: when it comes to children, there are still many lessons to be learned about how best to handle a pandemic.