Child Vax Programme Will Pit ‘Parents Against Parents’, Warn Tory MPs

Sadie Sindland, age 14, is inoculated by Nurse Karen Pagliaro at Hartford Healthcares mass
JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

Conservative MPs have warned that allowing children to override the wishes of their parents and be vaccinated against coronavirus could “pit parents against parents” and put too much pressure on children.

On Monday, England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for use on children aged 12 to 15, despite the government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) not recommending it. If ministers back the move, some three million more children — on top of the 16- and 17-year-olds already allowed to be vaccinated — could be offered the jab from as early as next week.

Britain’s two most senior ministers for health — Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid — had sent out conflicting messages in recent weeks over whether the young teens will need parental consent to be vaccinated.

Vaccine Minister Zahawi reiterated on Tuesday that the government is “not creating a new system for Covid” to resolve disputes between parents and children over the vaccine and will give the child the shot against their parents’ wishes if they are deemed competent to make the decision.

Speaking to LBC, Mr Zahawi said: “All school immunisation programmes have followed the same protocols: i.e., that parental consent is required. In the rare occasion where there is a difference of opinion where the parent doesn’t want their child vaccinated, and the 12-year-old or 13-year-old wants their vaccine, the first thing is that the clinician, through the school-aged immunisation system, will bring the parent and child together to try and reach a consensus.

“If that is not possible, and the 12-year-old is deemed competent to make that decision — it’s called the Gillick competence, it’s been with us since the ’80s and vaccine programmes have been very successfully delivered through schools year in, year out — there is no difficulty. We’re not creating a new system for Covid. This is exactly what we do for other school-aged vaccination programmes. If that 12-, 13-, 14-, 15-year-old is deemed competent, then they can have the vaccine.”

He added that such a conflict was “a very rare occurrence”.

However, some Conservative MPs have voiced their concern about applying the Gillick competency protocol to the coronavirus vaccine, warning it could cause disputes within families and with teachers.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP told fellow lawmakers in the House of Commons on Monday: “I think it will pit parents against parents and parents against teachers, with a poor child stuck in the middle wondering what to do. There will be very little benefit to the child, and there is a lack of long-term data on the potential harm. However, what concerns me above all is that the Gillick doctrine of treating children without parental consent will become the norm for a range of medical procedures.”

Zahawi said on Tuesday that there should be “no stigma” around the child vaccination programme, but former Tory Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith warned on Monday that children may feel overwhelmed with guilt to be vaccinated in case they pose a contagion risk.

The veteran MP said: “The pressure will grow on the child. There is no way of legislating for this greater good concept that says, ‘The school may be in trouble, and your class may be in deep difficulty, if you do not take the vaccine.’”

“It will lead to disputes in families and real problems about children’s mental health in the opposite direction, as they are put under pressure. I wonder whether he [Zahawi] and the Government will think again about this,” Sir Iain said.

Microbiologist Professor Simon Clarke from the University of Reading likewise warned that unvaccinated children could be bullied by other children into taking the vaccine, meaning the choice is no longer completely that of the individual child’s.

“It will cause rows I think… You may end up in a situation where a minority, it will probably be the unvaccinated, get bullied and excluded by other children,” Professor Clarke told MailOnline.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to confirm that 32 million over-50s will be offered a third jab in the form of a booster to stave off a potential Winter wave.

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