Expensive vaccinations for the young

Prices, Pfizer and Moderna raise price of vaccines

European Union supply contracts

One Pfizer shot now 19.50 euros (£16.65)

Up from 15.50 euros previously

One Moderna dose £18.30

Up from about £16 in the first procurement deal

Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation

16 and 17-year-olds in the UK will be offered a first dose soon

1.4 million will be eligible

Prof Jonathan Van-Tam

We have the supply and I'm expecting this to start in a very short number of weeks indeed

There is no time to waste in getting on with this

I want us to proceed as fast as is practically possible

Pfizer-BioNTech only

Routinely vaccinating children over 12

United States since May

France Italy, Brazil, Japan, Israel, Hong Kong

Vaccine safety

The Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine is administered via intramuscular injection, usually in the upper arm.

Most frequent reactions aged 12 to 17 years

Injection site pain, fever and headache

Generally mild, self-limiting and short-lived, (1 to 2 days)

FDA data on pericarditis and myocarditis

Onset of symptoms within a few days after vaccination

Particularly following the second dose

Chest pain, shortness of breath, or feelings of having a fast-beating, fluttering, or pounding heart

Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 and Moderna mRNA- 1273

These extremely rare adverse reactions have been more frequent shortly after the second dose, and in younger individuals and males

60 cases per million

6 or 7 times more common after the second dose

1 in 16,666

1.4 million will be eligible = 84 cases

The mechanism of action underlying these rare events is not currently known

Israel and the United States have reported most of the cases

Milder phenotype

Vast majority recovering swiftly from the acute episode, compared to more typical cases of myocarditis

Benefits of vaccination

Secondary school-aged children in England (early July)

Antibody positive is approximately 40%

England, February 2020 and March 2021

61 deaths after testing positive

22 from acute infection and three from PIMS

mortality rate of 2/million for the 12,023,568 CYP living in England

Survival rate after testing positive = 99·995%

Second wave, hospitalisation rate, 100 to 400 per million

Severe neuro-disabilities, Down’s Syndrome, underlying conditions resulting in immunosuppression, severe learning disabilities

March 2020 TO July 2020

449 cases of PIMS in persons under 16 years

44% were admitted to paediatric intensive care

Overall case fatality ratio was 1.1%

Existing studies suggest that longer term (more than 8 weeks) symptoms following SARS-CoV2 infection occur in about 1% to 10% of persons after COVID-19

Avoiding school and class-based measures

Benefits to adult is highly uncertain

UK, cases up a bit today

Includes lateral flow tests

Tuesday, 4th August, + 29,312

Monday 3rd August, 21,691