ALL children aged 12 and over should be offered the vaccine, a group of scientists has urged, as they warned Gavin Williamson that allowing the mass infection of children would be “reckless.” 

In an open letter to the Education Secretary, published in the BMJ today, scientists, parents and educators warn that due to policies in England there will soon be a large “susceptible” population at the start of the school term with “hardly any mitigations.” 

It came as the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation (JCVI) ruled out mass vaccinations for children aged 12 to 15 on Friday, saying that there was not enough evidence of the health benefits to expanding the rollout to this group. 

Children have suffered “significant harm” from the virus, the group says, and so “allowing mass infection of children is therefore reckless.”

Outlining the potential harms to children, the group said there have been over 2,300 hospitalisations of under-18s in England, while an estimated 34,000 are living with long Covid-19 across Britain. 

They argue that ministers have no plan for robust mitigation measures to reduce the risk of infection among children when they return to schools in England where measures such as wearing masks, bubbles and social distancing are no longer a requirement. 

Earlier school reopenings in Scotland and the US have shown that a lack of “adequate mitigations” is likely to lead to the virus spreading among children, they said.

The group is urging the government to offer vaccines to all 12 to 15-year-olds, highlighting how other international disease prevention bodies have recommended that teenagers should get the jab. 

But today the JCVI announced that it had not approved the move, though it did recommend the expansion of the number of vulnerable children eligible for the jab.

Teachers’ union NEU joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said that if the JCVI decision is upheld by chief medical officers, who will review the move over the next four weeks, this would “make additional safety mitigations in schools all the more important.”

“Sadly, in taking away so many safety measures last term, without replacing them with others, the government has left schools open to another rise in case counts, which will mean that many children and staff missing school if they test positive.”