A mum drove her daughter almost 800 miles to Italy so she could get a Covid vaccination.
With the coronavirus vaccine currently only available to under-12s in the UK if they are classed as clinically vulnerable, Alice Colombo took it upon herself to drive for 13 hours to Milan from Tonbridge in Kent to get her daughter the jab.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Friday, public health professional Ms Colombo said she didn't want her child to potentially suffer from the long-term effects of coronavirus.
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"If I'm honest with you, I’m much happier running the minimal risks associated with the vaccine than rolling the dice with the virus itself,” she said.
“I appreciate that it is a risk, every vaccine carries a risk with it, but we know about those risks and we know what to do in the unfortunate cases where people do have a reaction to it.
"But there is still so much we don't know about the virus, and particularly its long term effects. Looking at the statistics that I've looked at, which are the ones from the ONS out at New Year, we have one in 15 primary school children positive in that last week of term before Christmas.
"Quite frankly, I didn't want to take the risk of her getting the virus and potentially suffering from long term effects that we don't know about, rather than run the very minimal risks associated with her getting the jab."
Ms Colombo, who, like her daughter, has dual Italian citizenship which makes her eligible for the jab, said she chose to drive the 800-mile trip through the snow of the French Alps rather than fly in order to keep her daughter "as safe as possible".
"We know the virus is circulating - and when we left the UK, Omicron had just started to become as virulent as it has become and numbers had just started creeping up.
"I really didn't want to run the risk of her catching it on the way over, because obviously at that point she wouldn't have been able to have the jab."
In December, a regulator approved one dose of the Pfizer jab for 5 to 11-year-olds - but at present, it will only be offered to 300,000 clinically vulnerable children.
The UK Government has said that further advice regarding the vaccination of 5 to 11-year-olds would be issued in due course once they have looked at new data - but added that the majority of children in that age group were at very low risk of becoming seriously ill from the virus.
Ms Colombo added that other parents had disagreed with her decision to take her child abroad to get vaccinated, but maintained that she "absolutely believes in choice".
"I appreciate that for every one parent who thinks like me, you'll probably find about 10 that think I'm completely loopy," she said. "But I've actually been quite surprised that a lot of parents I've spoken to were actually very against what we were doing, having had the jab themselves.
"That is a stance that I really don't understand, if you feel confident and safe to have the vaccine yourself. The amount of reaction in this age group from the vaccine is very low, we know about it. But we don't know about the long term impacts of long Covid in children.
"I'd much rather give my daughter the protection that the vaccine offers and I don't really understand why other parents who themselves had the vaccine wouldn't be saved," she added.
"But I think parents should be given the choice. Ultimately I've had the jab myself, I've had all three doses. Why would I not want to give that protection to my daughter?
"I really think the UK Government should be able to give me that choice to take an informed decision as a parent."
GMB's Dr Amir Khan explained: "In the UK, the MHRA has actually approved the Pfizer vaccine in a smaller dose for all five to 11 year olds, but the JCVI has recommended it for only those who are vulnerable or living with someone vulnerable.
"The data around that is not very clear. They say they're observing it to see whether there's any risks in that five to 11-year-old group, and the risk they refer to is this risk of heart inflammation in younger people.
"But five million five to 11-year-olds have been vaccinated in the US and there haven't been any cases of heart inflammation."
When host Kate Garraway suggested that the effects of the vaccine on young children could remain to be seen, Dr Khan responded: "In older children where we saw it happen, it happened within about four weeks or so.
"But we've seen five to 11-year-olds get vaccinated, that time period has passed and they haven't had that inflammation.
In response to Ben Shephard's claim that children are at minimal risk from Covid, Dr Khan said: "They're not at no risk. The problem with five to 11-year-olds in this country at the moment is that there is no protection at all in schools. There's no mask wearing, there's very minimal ventilation.
"We don't know the exact risk in children. We've seen an increased number of children go into hospital last week alone with Covid and we've got over 100,000 children in the UK with long Covid."
“I would like to see the JCVI recommend (the rollout of vaccinations for five to 11-year-olds) and if they're not doing that, I want to see clear evidence as to why they're not doing that.
"But I think the mum here is right. Parents want to be given a choice and whether they choose to vaccinate their child or not is up to them."
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