Moderna‘s Covid vaccine has been approved for children aged 12 to 17 by the UK’s medical watchdog.

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

It becomes the second coronavirus vaccine to be approved for British children after Pfizer’s, which uses the same technology, was green-lit in June.   

All 16 and 17-year-olds are being invited for the Pfizer vaccine and do not need permission from a parent or guardian to get one.

But only under-16s who live with very vulnerable people or who have immune weaknesses themselves are being invited. 

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

The Department of Health has asked its vaccine advisory panel, which is separate from the MHRA, for a formal recommendation.

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

The panel will likely look abroad to rollouts where the vaccine is already being given to children, including in the US. 

Dr June Raine, the chief executive of the MHRA, said: ‘I am pleased to confirm that that the Covid-19 vaccine made by Moderna has now been authorised in 12-17 year olds. The vaccine is safe and effective in this age group.

‘We have in place a comprehensive safety surveillance strategy for monitoring the safety of all UK-approved Covid-19 vaccines and this surveillance will include the 12 to 17 year age group.

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

All teenagers aged 16 and 17 in the UK are to be offered a coronavirus vaccine by next Monday (August 23) on the back of JCVI guidance.

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

But so far the group has stopped short of recommending the Pfizer vaccine be rolled out to all over-12s, limiting it only to vulnerable people in this age group.

It has said that healthy children are at such a low risk from coronavirus and long Covid that the tiny risk of heart problems after vaccination outweighs the benefit. 

Young people appear to be at a one in 20,000 chance of developing myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle after a dose of Pfizer’s vaccine, which uses the same mRNA technology as Moderna’s, the JCVI revealed in guidance issued last month.

Whereas it said that the risk of a youngster dying from Covid was just one in a million.

A spokesperson for the department said: ‘We welcome the news that Moderna’s vaccine has been approved as safe and effective for people aged 12 and over.

‘As has been the case with all other approvals, we will now be guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and have asked for its formal recommendation on whether to administer this vaccine to people aged 12 to 17.

‘All young people aged 16 to 17, clinically vulnerable children aged 12 to 15 and people who live with adults who are immunosuppressed will be offered a first dose of a Pfizer jab by Monday 23 August.’

Source: Daily Mail

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