COVID-19: Ministers can veto JCVI and move ahead with vaccines for 12-15 year olds | UK news

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The government is said to be determined to push ahead with COVID-19 vaccines for children aged 12 to 15, despite advisers recommending that they not be used.

On Friday, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization said that while it will expand the vaccination program to include more children in that age group with health conditions, it does not recommend widespread vaccination of their healthy peers.

But reports in a number of national newspapers on Saturday said government ministers, who will have the final say, are keen to offer vaccinations to all children in that age group.

Health Minister Sajid Javid said they would take advice from top medical officials in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland before “a decision is made soon”.

The Times reports that vaccinations could begin as soon as next week.

Earlier on Friday, the JCVI said that the coronavirus posed little risk to healthy children, and therefore, the benefit of vaccination was not large enough to support mass vaccination for this age group.

The Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Authority, the independent regulator of medicines, has approved the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for those 12 years of age or older.

Efforts are already underway to recruit thousands of school vaccination workers, and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson previously said he was “very hopeful” that children under 16 could be vaccinated.

Professor Wei Shen Lim, Head of Coronavirus Immunization at JCVI, said: “The view of JCVI is that the overall health benefits from COVID-19 vaccination for healthy 12-15-year-olds are marginally greater than the potential harms.

“With a precautionary approach, this benefit margin is considered too small to support universal COVID-19 vaccination for this age group at this time. The panel will continue to review safety data as it emerges.”

Northern Ireland’s health minister, Robin Swan, said he agreed that the issue of wider dissemination “calls for further study”.

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Wales Health Minister Elonid Morgan said she had asked the country’s chief medical officer to “provide guidance at the earliest opportunity on the clinical and broader health benefits of vaccinating this age group”.

Scottish Health Minister Hamza Yusuf said he had requested the review “as soon as possible”.

Jeff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he was disappointed by the JCVI’s decision not to recommend vaccines for all 12 to 15-year-olds.

He added that while they respect this, it could mean that “it is more difficult during the fall and beyond to guard against the educational disruption caused by transmission of the virus.”

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