The UK’s vaccine advisory group behaved like a medical regulator in rejecting calls for all children aged 12-15 to be offered Covid jabs despite that not being its role, Prof Neil Ferguson has said.
Last week the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said the margin of benefit for older children, on health grounds alone, was too small for the committee to support jabs for the entire age group.
But it recommended that ministers seek further advice, taking into account factors such as the impact on disruption to education, with sources suggesting vaccines for older children could be recommended this week.
Ferguson, a leading epidemiologist from Imperial College London whose initial modelling was pivotal in Britain’s coronavirus response, said he would not be surprised if the UK’s chief medical officers decide to press ahead with vaccinating healthy children aged 12 to 15.
Speaking at an online event hosted by the Institute for Government, Ferguson said he understood that the JCVI had been relatively conservative in its advice, because of the small risk of a…
