Scotland’s chief medical officer has urged the UK’s vaccine advisory body to consider offering all teenagers the coronavirus jabs before schools reopen.
In a letter to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, Dr Gregor Smith stressed the urgency of any potential change in decision “given the early return of schools in Scotland in mid-August”.
The JCVI will this week examine further data on giving young people the vaccine, having ruled that jabs should be withheld from those aged 12 to 17.
The World Health Organisation, the European Medicines Agency, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other global health bodies all recommend that young people are inoculated.
In his letter Smith highlighted the possibility of long Covid affecting young people, where symptoms can last for weeks or months after the infection has gone. “This is clearly an area where understanding is still developing and there is much debate on the nature and frequency of how this impacts on children and young people,” he said.
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“Estimates of how common this is appear to be particularly problematic in international literature with wide variation quoted in studies.
“However, given the disproportionate impact that these enduring symptoms may have on children and young people’s health, development and opportunity, I hope that the JCVI will be able to say more about how these aspects have contributed to the consideration and formation of your advice at this next update. For children and young people, I think it is especially important that this morbidity is given appropriate concern in addition to severe disease and hospitalisation.”
The JCVI previously said that large-scale studies suggest there is “very low” risk of the condition in children. Teenagers from at-risk groups, including those with Down’s syndrome and learning difficulties or those who are immunosuppressed or live with someone who is, will be offered the vaccine by the end of this month.
Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, has made clear her desire to give vaccines to young people as soon as the green light is given by the JCVI.
She will confirm today whether Scotland will move to “beyond Level 0” and abandon almost all remaining Covid restrictions, including social distancing, although face coverings will remain mandatory.
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Government officials were cautious but more positive than in recent weeks as the number of cases continued to fall and dropped below 1,000 for the first time since June with 799 recorded in the past 24 hours. One person died after testing positive, taking the death toll to 7,943. The daily test positivity rate is 6.5 per cent, up 1.1pt from the day before.
A total of 407 people were in hospital yesterday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down 15, with 60 patients in intensive care, down two. So far, 4,012,496 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 3,214,801 have received a second dose
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, urged Sturgeon to stick to her plan, which would drop self-isolation rules for double-vaccinated people if they are “pinged”.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, called for an upgrade to NHS services as Scotland reopens. “We urgently need a plan for our NHS and care systems to ensure that workers feel supported, services are invested in and the backlog of appointments is cleared.”
