2021-07-22
The JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) has published its guidance on vaccinating children against Covid.
Have they been reading articles on this site?
This advice runs diametrically counter to previous findings of the MHRA.
The JCVI is still proposing to vaccinate the "most vulnerable" children, presumably on the basis that vaccines are safe for those with compromised immune systems and will protect them from falling ill from Covid.
"That includes children aged 12 to 15 with severe neurodisabilities, Down’s syndrome, immunosuppression and multiple or severe learning disabilities.
The JCVI also recommends that children and young people aged 12 to 17 who live with an immunosuppressed person should be offered the vaccine. This is to indirectly protect their immunosuppressed household contacts, who are at higher risk of serious disease from COVID-19 and may not generate a full immune response to vaccination."
I am not aware of any evidence in support of these propositions.
Common sense would indicate that a vaccine would be more likely to harm someone with a compromised immune system than someone with a healthy immune system, so if the vaccine isn't appropriate for a healthy person then it is at least arguable that it cannot be appropriate for an unhealthy person (all other factors being equal).
The idea that it is acceptable to vaccinate somebody who would not otherwise benefit from a vaccination simply because they live with an "immunosuppressed" person would directly conflict with the principle of "first, do no harm". It also runs counter to the much-repeated advice that the vaccine protects from serious illness rather than from catching the virus, so the presumed benefit seems highly questionable.
Therefore it is incumbent upon the JCVI to disclose its evidence that the risks from vaccination of the groups indicated really are small compared with the risk of both catching covid and being injured or dying from it.
Otherwise it may run the risk of being accused of promoting a policy which would result in a reduction in the population of disabled children.
