‘Quite a lot of damage’ could be done over winter
England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty faced questions from MPs about the inclusion of children in the Government’s Covid-19 vaccination programme today (Wednesday).
When asked what proportion of children had already had Covid-19, he replied: “It varies by age and it does also vary by setting, but I think if we go for roughly half I think that is a reasonable stab at this.
“That’s half over the period of the entire epidemic to date, and we’ve got quite a way to run.
“We’re running into winter so there’s still quite a lot of damage that could be done in terms of disruption.”
England’s deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam added that because the Delta variant is so infectious “we are not looking at a theoretical risk” of children aged 12 to 17 becoming infected.
He said: “I think it is really quite inevitable that they will be so at some point.”
Prof Van-Tam warned that these pupils could become infected during their GCSEs and A-levels when it is “extremely inconvenient to be laid low” with a cough, fever, and respiratory symptoms.