British school children aged 12 to 15 years with initial COVID vaccine

London, September 14, 2021:

The UK government has announced that school children aged 12 to 15 will be offered the first dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine starting next week. ..

The Department of Health (DHSC) said Monday night that the minister had accepted the advice of four UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) and the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS) was preparing to offer a school-based vaccination program. Said.

It states that the NHS is a “success model” used for vaccination with HPV, diphtheria, tetanus, polio (DTP), etc., supported by general practitioners (GPs) and local pharmacies. Is based.

“I accepted a recommendation from the Chief Health Officer to extend vaccination from 12 to 15 years old, which prevented young people from becoming infected with COVID-19, reduced infections at school, and Keep the students in the classroom, “said Sajid Javid, UK Health Minister.

“We are very grateful for the expert advice we received from the Joint Committee on Immunization and Immunization (JCVI) and the UK Chief Medical Officer. Our excellent NHS is at all times in our vaccination program. With the same sense of urgency we had at, we are ready to deploy the vaccine to this group, “he said.

Parental, guardian, or caregiver consent is sought by vaccination medical staff prior to vaccination according to the existing school vaccination program. Healthy school age children between the ages of 12 and 15 are primarily vaccinated with COVID-19 at school and provide alternative prevention to homeschooled children with safe service and professional mental health settings. I will provide a plan.

People under the age of 16 are not automatically presumed to have the legal ability to determine their health care and therefore whether they should be vaccinated with COVID-19.

However, a British court said that under the age of 16 was capable of giving valid consent to a particular intervention if there was “sufficient understanding and intelligence to fully understand the proposal,” called Gillick ability. increase. The DHSC states that the Gillick test can provide care and treatment without parental consent if a child under the age of 16 has sufficient understanding and intelligence to understand the proposed content. If the child is deemed incapable of giving consent to himself, he or she should seek consent from the person responsible for the parent of the COVID vaccine.

The DHSC said the government had sought the views of four UK CMOs on a wider range of issues related to child health, in line with the recommendations of the independent JCVI. On Monday, the CMO confirmed its decision to support vaccination for younger age groups. This expands the current deployment of COVID vaccines in the UK over the age of 16 from the standard.

According to official NHS data, more than four in five adults across the UK have been vaccinated with both COVID-19, and more than half of the ages 16 and 17 participate in the first jab. ET HealthWorld