The Pfizer vaccine could be a potential candidate to use on children due to its safety record, an expert said.
Appearing on Times Radio, Klaus Okkenhaug, professor of immunology in the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge, conceded it was a “fair point” when it was put to him that one or two “bad cases” of vaccine side effects could “spook” a large number of people.
Prof Okkenhaug said: “I think the lower in age we go, the lower the risk from the virus is, then the more risk averse we become with relation to the vaccine.”
He highlighted that with data from the tens of millions of people who had been vaccinated “if you go for children, you would want to go for the safest vaccine”.
“And I think probably an argument could be that for children you go for the Pfizer, if that pans out, as it looks to be, (to) have an even better safety record.”
Prof Okkenhaug said there is a “good argument” for vaccinating older children against coronavirus.
He said that the decision on whether to give children coronavirus jabs was a “difficult question” that requires balancing wider benefits against the direct ones for children.
“I think for a whole population it would of course help for children to be vaccinated because it also reduces their opportunities to transmit this virus to their teachers,” he said.
Prof Okkenhaug said that when considering the “direct benefits to the children” it was “a little bit of a fine balance because they are so unlikely to be affected by the virus”.
He added: “But I think given the phenomenal safety records of some of the vaccines out there, there’s a good argument for going ahead at least with older children, say 12 and above.”
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