UK approves Moderna’s Covid jab for 12 to 17 year olds

ModernThe UK’s medical watchdog has approved a COVID vaccine for children aged 12 to 17 years.

A review by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) found that the jab was safe and effective in this age group.

It became the second coronavirus vaccine to be approved for British children after Pfizer, which uses the same technology that was flagged off in June.

All 16 and 17-year-olds are being invited to the Pfizer vaccine and do not require a parent or guardian’s permission to receive it.

But only under-16s are being invited who live with very vulnerable people or who have weak immunity of their own.

Moderna’s vaccine is expected to be implemented in a similar fashion to the 12 to 17 age groups.

The health department has asked its vaccine advisory panel for a formal recommendation, which is separate from the MHRA.

The Joint Committee on Immunization and Immunization (JCVI) will look at Moderna’s trials of its COVID jab in children before making a recommendation.

The panel will potentially look to rollouts overseas where children are already being vaccinated, including in the US.

MHRA Chief Executive Dr June Raine said: ‘I am pleased to confirm that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna is now authorized for children aged 12-17 years. The vaccine is safe and effective in this age group.

‘We have a comprehensive safety monitoring strategy in place to monitor the safety of all UK-approved COVID-19 vaccines and this monitoring will cover the age group of 12 to 17 years.

‘It is up to the Joint Committee on Immunization and Immunization (JCVI) whether this age group should be vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine made by Moderna as part of the deployment programme.’

A coronavirus vaccine is to be offered to all adolescents aged 16 and 17 in the UK by next Monday (23 August), based on JCVI guidance.

This will give them the opportunity to build up some level of protection before the school year begins in September, when infections are expected to rise rapidly.

Other countries have been successfully vaccinating young children for some time now, but the UK has taken a more cautious approach.

So far the JCVI is only recommending the Pfizer vaccine to children under the age of 16 if their immune system is severely weakened or has learning difficulties.

Youth living with immunosuppressed family members are also eligible for the jab.

JCVI claims that healthy children are at such low risk from coronavirus and long-lived covid that the small risk of heart problems after vaccination outweighs the benefits.

Young people have a one in 20,000 chance of developing myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, after a single dose of Pfizer vaccine.

Since both Moderna’s and Pfizer’s vaccines use the same mRNA technology, the risks are thought to be similar.

In guidance issues last month, the JCVI said the risk of a young person dying of Covid was just one in a million.

The main benefit of vaccinating children is to protect older adults, which has made the move somewhat controversial.

A spokesman for the department said: ‘We welcome the news that Moderna’s vaccine has been recognized as safe and effective for people 12 years of age and older.

‘As with all other approvals, we will now be guided by the Independent Joint Committee on Immunization and Immunization (JCVI) and asked for its formal recommendation on administering this vaccine to people aged 12 to 17 years Is.

‘All youth aged 16 to 17 years, medically vulnerable children aged 12 to 15 years and those who live with adults who are immunosuppressed will be offered the first dose of the Pfizer jab by Monday 23 August .’