Teachers urge jag rollout for Scottish pupils with a decision expected in days

Teachers yesterday urged the Scottish Government to press ahead with Covid vaccines for younger pupils after advisers said politicians not scientists must decide.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisations (JCVI) refused to recommend the rollout for 12 to 15-year-olds saying the health benefits for children were unclear and the UK’s chief medical officers (CMOs) have now been asked to decide.

Tomorrow, Scotland’s CMO, Gregor Smith, will begin talks with England’s Chris Whitty and their counterparts in Wales and Northern Ireland. Unlike the scientists, who looked at the health benefits for individual children, they have been asked to consider the wider implications of vaccinating pupils such as the impact on education of outbreaks in class.

Yesterday, Larry Flanagan, leader of teachers’ union the Educational Institute of Scotland, said they should quickly trigger the roll-out: “In terms of the rights of the child, it seems to us mistaken not to vaccinate 12 to 15-year-olds when older pupils and adults have been offered vaccinations.

“This is about keeping children in schools and keeping schools open and the educational benefit argument is critical.

“The fact that we have currently the highest level of pupil infection and the highest level of teacher absence since the pandemic started is a real wake-up call.

“If we don’t take further steps we could see schools being disrupted even more than they have been.

“Across the globe we are seeing lots of countries vaccinate pupils and we expect the Scottish Government to urgently take the decision to go ahead with offering vaccinations to all 12 to 15-year-olds.

“If the JCVI is making a medical decision, ministers can make an apolitical decision to push ahead in order to maximise the educational benefit to young people.”

There has been a huge surge in cases since Covid restrictions were relaxed last month and schools reopened. More than 32,000 pupils were absent last week due to Covid.

One in every 75 people in Scotland had the virus last week, up from one in 140 two weeks ago, according to official estimates from the Office for National Statistics. Another 6,152 cases and 11 deaths were recorded yesterday. There were 670 people in hospital and 58 in intensive care.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has previously said if the JCVI recommended the use of the vaccine for children over the age of 12 the NHS would move quickly to offer jags.

The independent medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, has approved the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for children aged 12 and over.

Urgent asssessments

Scotland’s Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said on Friday all four UK nations had asked their respective chief medical officers to urgently assess whether to vaccinate over -12s.

A source in England’s Department of Health said meetings between the UK’s four CMOs will be held over the next few days and ministers want an early decision.

In Europe, at least 29 countries including Italy, Germany, France, Spain and The Netherlands have started vaccinating children aged 12 and over or are planning to do so in the near future. The United States has also rolled out jags to over 12s.

A new study in the US found hospitalisation rates were approximately 10 times higher in unvaccinated adolescents aged 12-17 compared with the fully vaccinated.

Researchers said vaccines were highly effective at preventing serious illness in US children in this age group during a period when the Delta variant predominated. The study concluded preventive measures to reduce transmission and severe outcomes in children and adolescents are critical, including vaccination and universal masking in schools.

One expert at a Scottish health board said the JCVI’s delay in taking a decision was frustrating.

Jillian Evans, head of health intelligence at NHS Grampian, said vaccinating the age group would help prevent transmission of the virus, as well as protect children from Long Covid.

She said: “The thing about this is, it’s frustrating because it just builds in further delay in a decision that we’ve already been pushing for, so it delays things a little bit further.

“Although I’m absolutely certain that there’ll be a lot of activity going on right now and in the days ahead so we can get to a decision as quickly as possible.”