Helping get COVID vaccinations for vulnerable 12-15 year olds

Parents of clinically extremely vulnerable children, like Alex and Ben featured in a Cambridge Independent Article today, have been in anguish over the past couple of weeks as they faced sending their vulnerable children into school with no protection against Covid-19. I was very happy and relieved to be able to help these two families get vaccinations through the Clinical Commissioning Group.

The deadline for offering vulnerable children vaccinations was set as 23rd August but their parents saw this deadline come and go, with no clarity on how they could get their children vaccinated and with both GPs and NHS 111 unable to help. Ben Walker, whose 13 year old son Alex has Down Syndrome and has had quite poor respiratory health in the past, said; “The Government has made it clear that for any parents that withdrew from school there was no obligation to offer them education in any other setting. Effectively we were having to make the choice between his health and his education”.

When Alex and Ben’s parents reached out to me for help, I was astounded to find that in Cambridgeshire, neither GP surgeries nor hospitals were offering vulnerable 12-15 year olds the vaccination before they started school, despite the fact that the government had said they were eligible. These families shouldn't have had to go through such a scary time. I am pleased that the mass vaccination centres are now being mobilised for all 12-15 year olds.