Vaccinate children ‘as fast as we can’ to keep schools open, top government adviser says

Children should be vaccinated “as fast as we can” to keep schools open, a leading government scientific advisor says.

“Until we’ve all been vaccinated – I include children here – then there is going to be significant risk,” warned Professor John Edmunds.

Trials are underway in the safety of extending the jabs programme from adults, but no plans have been announced by the government.

Prof Edmunds, who sits on the Sage advisory committee, said ministers could be “confident” in easing some restrictions, pointing to the very low risk of infection outdoors.

But he said: “We’re all at risk and we can all spread the virus. I think there is an argument for turning to children as fast as we can.

And he added: “There has been major disruption in schools – and will continue to be major disruption in schools until we have vaccinated our children.”

Ahead of the expected go-ahead to reopen all schools on 8 March, the professor warned it could push the ‘R’ number above 1 – meaning the epidemic would be growing again – so other restrictions must stay

“If we eased off very rapidly now, we would get another surge in hospitalisations, so we have to ease very gradually,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

“Otherwise we will put the health service under pressure again and we’ll get a surge in hospitalisations, and indeed deaths.”.

Cautioning that the South African variant is being “held in place now, as everything else is being held in place by the lockdown”, Prof Edmunds added: “The risk comes really when we release the lockdown.”