According to the BBC, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has decided to invite another 200,000 12 to 15-year-olds with underlying health problems for Covid vaccines – but has stopped short of extending it to all teenagers.
Instead, health minister from all four UK nations will ask their chief medical officers to decide. They will also consider aspects such as the impact on education.
This means that about 350,000 12 to 15-year-olds with certain health problems are now eligible for the vaccines. There are more than three million 12 to 15-year-olds in the UK.
The vaccine experts did decide the benefits to children do marginally outweigh the risks – but that wasn’t enough for them to recommend universal vaccination for this age group.
They weighed up the very rare risk of young people developing myocarditis – an inflammation of the heart.
In the US, for every million Pfizer second doses given to 12 to 17-year-old boys, around 60 had the condition. It was eight in a million for girls.