BMJ: Vaccinating children aged under 5 years against COVID-19

The United States has joined a handful of countries recommending that children aged 6 months to 5 years should receive COVID-19 vaccines, but it is uncertain if other countries will follow. What is the evidence behind the US’s recommendation, and how does the case for vaccinating children under 5 years differ from offering COVID-19 vaccines to older children?

NIHR ARC NWL research led by Professor Sonia Saxena, Child Population Health Theme Lead, Helen Skirrow, clinical NIHR doctoral research fellow and Kate Wighton, parent representative. Discussing whether children under 5 years should be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Children are more likely than adults to experience asymptomatic COVID-19 or very mild illness, and are much less likely to have severe disease requiring hospital admission. But those with underlying health conditions, such as long term neurological disease, are more likely to be admitted to hospital with COVID-19 than healthy children.

Impact of the pandemic

During the first year of the pandemic, an estimated 25 children died from COVID-19 in the UK (equivalent to two deaths per million), 19 of whom had underlying serious or life limiting health conditions. More recent data from the UK confirm that risk of death from COVID-19 remains very low for young people, particularly children aged under 12. Rates of the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (a very rare but serious complication of COVID-19) have also decreased in subsequent waves.

So should children under 5 years be vaccinated against COVID-19?

Read the editorial in full on BMJ: Vaccinating children aged under 5 years against COVID - 19 | The BMJ

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