Boris warns: Race between our vaccination programme and the virus may be about to become tighter
NHS may redirect the 1million weekly first doses to boost capacity for second jabs for over-50s
All those in top priority groups will get second jab after eight weeks instead of 12 in face of third wave
Risk analysts suggest young adults should get the AstraZeneca jab when infection rates are high
NO
by Melanie McDonagh
What’s not to like about vaccinating teenagers against Covid? I asked my daughter whether she’d be up for a jab and she rolled her eyes. ‘Do I look like an anti-vaxxer?’ she said wearily.
My children, 14 and 17, can’t see any reason why they shouldn’t have a vaccination, always supposing older groups have been vaccinated first. The very few young people under 30 who’ve suffered blood clots after getting the AstraZeneca vaccine is nothing by comparison with the victims of the actual virus.
I can’t see any problem with NHS England considering vaccinations for children over 12 when the new school year starts in September, if the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation approves it.
European Medicines Agency Approves AstraZeneca Vaccine, but Concerns Remain
Commentary
Following 20 million AstraZeneca jabs so far administered in the UK there have been 79 blood clot cases recorded, from which 19 deaths have occurred. The UK government’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) concludes that roughly one in 100,000 young adults are likely to develop these types of blood clots after taking the AstraZeneca vaccine.
, co-authored by David Spiegelhalter, chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at Cambridge University, and Anthony Masters of the Royal Statistical Society, calls this a “tolerable risk” compared to the vaccine’s benefits. It compares the chances of dying from the vaccine to the risk of dying under general anaesthesia, or on a skydiving jump, or winning the UK Lotto jackpot if you bought 450 tickets, or guessing the last five digits of someone’s mobile phone number.
AZ COVID Vaccine: Causal Link to Severe Thrombosis Established medscape.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medscape.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.