When making a big U-turn, it is helpful to explain why. This is even more essential with something as sensitive as child vaccination, about which many parents have legitimate concerns, and especially as antivaxers are ready to pounce on any inconsistencies in official advice.
Unfortunately, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) instead sought to downplay the change it made yesterday and repeatedly dodged basic questions about what exactly had prompted it.
Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer, instead made an argument from authority, invoking the “400 person-years of experience” in the JCVI. It is undoubtedly true that the group has made brave and justified calls throughout the pandemic that have saved many lives; they have earned the benefit of the doubt and many will give it to them.
But it would have been far better of them to remove that doubt by being more open about the change of heart. When the committee said that under-40s should be offered an alternative to the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab because of blood clot concerns, it was painstaking in laying out the risk-benefit ratios for different age groups. As a result of such explanations, confidence the programme was undamaged.
In a Downing Street press conference yesterday, the head of the JCVI would not quantify the risk and left it to others to explain that as side effects mainly came after second doses, the decision effectively kicks the can down the road.
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Yesterday’s inadequate explanations will give more space for conspiracy theories to flourish. Although ministers have always been keen to vaccinate children, it is unlikely that the committee will have been swayed by such pressure. It is more plausible that the decision was closer than it was made to appear last month and a couple of swing members have changed their minds.
More openness about the group’s deliberation and the data they looked at would allay concerns. The JCVI has sought to present a united front, but admitting disagreement and uncertainty about decisions as difficult as this would boost confidence rather than harming it. To maintain faith in the vaccination programme that is on the verge of taming Covid in Britain, we need a better explanation is needed of why the advice changed and where it is likely to head in the future.