Vaccinations and the young – what’s really going on?
This is the daily briefing, edited by Iain Martin. Free 30 day trial available here.
First it was vaccine passports in clubs. Then it was campus vaccination drives. Now Boris Johnson is threatening to go nuclear on Britain’s young people – with plans to restrict university lectures and halls to those who are fully vaccinated.
The PM is reportedly “raging” at the lack of vaccine uptake by younger people and has pushed for the mandatory vaccine plans to squeeze students into getting inoculated and improve immunity among the public.
Vicky Ford, the children’s minister, refused to rule out the policy this morning, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the government was looking at “every practicality” to prioritise education and get students back safely.
Those over the age of 18 have been eligible for vaccination against Covid in England since 18 June – but after an initial rush, interest waned. According to the latest data, fewer than 60 per cent of 18 to 25-year-olds in Britain have received a jab. But what are the reasons behind the slowing uptake?
Pippa Nightingale, chief nursing officer at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, said the age group had been as “tricky” to attract as feared, telling councillors: “They really do think they are resilient, they don’t need the vaccine, they’re not going to be admitted to intensive care.”
Only 237 of the 141,333 people who have died with Covid on their death certificate in England and Wales have been under 30. But while young people are certainly less likely to get seriously ill because of Covid, this does not mean they are immune to the risks.
Some hospitals have reported that an increasing number of young people with Covid are being admitted to hospital in recent weeks – and the lasting, and still largely unknown, effects of long Covid are a real concern for many young people.
Another reason for the waning numbers is the ongoing “pingdemic”. Many students have either tested positive or been told to isolate as the UK started to open up, meaning that some have still not received their first dose because they had to wait four weeks after catching the virus to go in for the jab.
On top of this, social media misinformation, cultural and religious background and concern over rare side effects are all factors in vaccine hesitancy among certain groups of young people – just as they are for the age groups above them.
All of this has left Johnson’s critics arguing that the young are being unfairly coerced into getting vaxxed in a way that tramples on the fundamental human right to education.
Robert Halfon, the Tory chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, has called the proposed policy “wrong-headed”. He said: “It’s like something out of Huxley’s Brave New World where people with vaccine passports will be engineered into social hierarchies — i.e. those who will be given a higher education and those who will not.”
Some scientists have also expressed reservations, with Professor Adam Finn, deputy head of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, warning that the measures could go too far. He said that “nudging” people to get jabs needed to be done “really quite carefully” so they did not feel they were being compelled.
Higher education officials have also expressed concern about the plans. Jo Grady, the University and College Union secretary, said: “Instead of chasing headlines as ministers go off on holiday, it would be much more useful if the Prime Minister worked with universities and NHS providers to enable and sensitively encourage student vaccination without resorting to compulsion.”
With opposition from politicians, scientists and universities alike, Johnson might have to spend his own holiday thinking up an alternative plan before students start returning to campus in little more than a month’s time.
Olivia Gavoyannis,
Reaction Reporter