By Charlotte Webster-
The controversial plans to vaccinate children in the Uk between the ages of 5 and 11 has been delayed while ministers decide whether or not to accept the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) recommendation to offer this age group the vaccine on a non-urgent basis.
The Uk government is reportedly in a stalemate position with the JCVI, and Boris Johnson is expected to announce the decision on February 21, when he presents his Living with Covid plan to parliament.
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Some schools have already been inviting children as young as 11 to be vaccinated, but parents who are concerned about their very young children being vaccinated have spoken up against the government initiative which empowers ‘mature’ children between the ages of 12 and 15 to receive the vaccine even if their parent or guardian objects but the pupil really wants to be vaccinated to be protected from the virus,
The news of the delay to vaccinate children between the ages of 5 and 11 comes a few days after the U.S government announced its plans to postpone its plans on Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children six months through four years of age has been postponed for at least two months after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it needed more data
The FDA had planned to make a decision on the vaccine based on early trial data because of what it had called a great public health need due to the surge in infections caused by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The decision was slated for next week, with a rollout starting as soon as February 21.
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On Friday, the agency said it had reviewed new trial information that had come in since Pfizer and BioNTech’s request for emergency authorisation and decided it needed more data before moving forward.
The FDA said parents anxiously awaiting the vaccine for the roughly 18 million children in the age group should be reassured that the agency is taking the time to make sure it meets the standard it has set for authorisation.
“If something does not meet that standard, we can’t proceed forward,” said Dr Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Marks noted some of the new data that pushed the FDA to delay the decision was “late-breaking”.
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