Stephen Griffin is an Associate Professor of Viral Oncology at the University of Leeds. Here, he shares his perspective on the announcement that the Covid-19 vaccine has been recommended for children ages five to 11 - including how seeing his young son suffer in hospital with meningitis affected him.
Since 2020, we’ve heard that Covid is mainly a problem for the elderly or vulnerable. Vaccines have dramatically improved their protection against the disease, but children and younger people – because it’s perceived that Covid poses little risk to them – have remained at the bottom of the list when it comes to immunisations. Covid vaccines are only now becoming available for under-12s in the UK.
The health secretary has deemed vaccinating five to 11-year-olds “ non-urgent ”, which I think is wrong, as I have argued previously. Like many parents, I have witnessed a tidal wave of Covid in our schools in recent months, as the government has prioritised school attendance while removing most measures to contain the virus. Thankfully, I don’t personally know any children that have suffered severe disease or developed long Covid. But that doesn’t mean this doesn’t happen – we need to consider the population as a whole, as we might for road traffic accidents, for example.
