• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

If the Government isn’t Following the Science When it Comes to Vaccinating Children, Who is it Following?

by Toby Young
6 September 2021 2:28 PM

We are publishing a guest post today by Dr. Peter Hayes, a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Sunderland, pointing out that when it comes to vaccinating healthy 12-15 year-olds the Government can no longer claim to be following the science.

“Follow The Science” has been the defining slogan of Covid policymaking for the past year and a half. However, we may now be at turning point. On September 3rd, that august and scientific body The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised not to start vaccinating otherwise healthy 12-15 year-olds. The Government, however, seems likely to set about vaccinating them anyway.

In his letter to chief medical officers, Health Secretary Sajid Javid says that the JCVI is against vaccination of 12-15 year olds because its margin of benefit against harm is “too small” and tacitly suggests that the officers come up with something to enable him to override this advice. However, Javid’s spin on the committee’s advice is misleading. It is not only the marginal benefits of the vaccine but also the unknown extent of its harms that has led the JCVI to recommend against it.

(1) The JCVI states that in advising whether or not to vaccinate it has focused on “the benefit to children and young people themselves, weighed against any potential harms from vaccination”, and that it has done this to the exclusion of other issues such as cost.

(2) It states that overall “the benefits from vaccination are marginally greater than the potential known harms” [emphasis added].

If the benefits are greater, albeit only marginally, it might seem logical for the JCVI to approve of extending the vaccination program. The reason it does not is because of an important proviso. There is uncertainty, the JCVI says, about what the harms the vaccine might have in the medium to long term. There is, therefore, an asymmetry between our knowledge of the extent of the benefits of the vaccine and the extent of its harms. It is known perfectly well that the maximum benefit is small because even if it is assumed to protect every healthy child aged 12-15 from serious illness, very few become seriously ill anyway. The question of maximum harm is more open ended. In particular, the JCVI expresses concern over the very rare side effect of myocarditis. In the short term, the JCVI states, patients recover, but in the medium to longer term there is “the possibility of persistence of tissue damage resulting from inflammation”. Therefore, the JCVI argument is not simply that the marginal benefits are too small to recommend vaccination. It is that the benefits at best are small, and that while the known harms are marginally smaller, the unknowns might change this balance for the worse.

The JCVI also comments that while the effect of the vaccine on transition rates is uncertain, in its view any impact “may be relatively small”. This is significant when it comes to efforts to justify the vaccination of 12-15 year-olds on social and educational grounds. Although rather vague, such justifications implicitly assume a significant reduction in rates of transition.

The willingness of the JCVI to engage in critical scrutiny of the vaccination rollout has not been all that much in evidence in the past. No wonder the Government was unpleasantly surprised by its refusal to rubber stamp an extension to 12-15 year-olds. Perhaps the committee is heading out in a new direction. But more to the point, we are left with the question of the new direction taken by the Government.

If it is no longer following ‘the Science’, who is it following?

Stop Press: A senior panjandrum at the British Medical Association has said 12 year-olds should be able to overrule their parents to get a Covid vaccine because they’re “mature enough” – but admits jabbing teens will only cut infections by 20%.

Tags: 12-15 Year-OldsJCVISajid JavidThe ScienceVaccination

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

Vaccine Passports For Theatres Will be ‘Nail in Coffin’

Next Post

A Third of Under-40s in England Haven’t Had a Single Covid Vaccine Dose

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

57 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
AEC
AEC
2 years ago

Good for him. Reform’s problem is Tice. The electorate suspects he’s a globalist in sheep’s clothing, and that manifested in the local elections.

98
-5
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago
Reply to  AEC

Tice’s night time “olympian” partner Isabel Oakshott seriously dented any pretence of Reform’s anti-establishment stance when she wrote Handicock’s diaries.

45
-5
Smudger
Smudger
2 years ago
Reply to  AEC

Standing down 317 candidates in 2019 also added deeply to this suspicion.
Tice does indeed to pee or get off the pot.

31
-4
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  AEC

With respect that seems to me like wishful thinking.
People who are naturally on the political right keep voting Tory in huge numbers. They have to stop for another political force to emerge on the right. They have had many chances and if the penny hasn’t dropped by now, I can’t see it happening in my lifetime. We probably need a disastrous societal collapse for people to wake up.

41
-1
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

“We probably need a disastrous societal collapse for people to wake up.”

Oh, I think such a collapse is absolutely inevitable tof.

26
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Looks that way

13
0
RW
RW
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

This has been going on for so long that there’s even a German word for it: Politikverdrossenheit (Fed-up-with-politics-ness). People are generally convinced that they keep getting shafted by corrupt/ otherwise non-desirable career politicians and have mentally disengaged themselves from political public life, yet, enough of them keep making the same crosses on the same boxes of ballot papers and then hope that this will somehow magically fix things (which it never does).

This is mirrored on the side of the actual political actors: By the time some group of people with a positive vision regarding what they want society to become and how to achieve that has percolated through the parliamentary system to positions of actual power, it’ll have turned into yet another group of short-termist establishment politicians playing to the tune of the machinery they believe to have conquered while it has really conquered them.

The system is f***ed and making more crosses on pieces of paper so that someone else will hopefully do something about it is not going to help.

16
0
varmint
varmint
2 years ago
Reply to  RW

Yep the system is indeed f…ed. ————-But as Churchill said “Democracy is the worst form of government…apart from all the rest”. ———We have to somehow operate within that f…ked system or become anarchists instead.

Last edited 2 years ago by varmint
6
0
Jane G
Jane G
2 years ago
Reply to  AEC

I’m not sure the electorate at large know what a globalist is.
Our area didn’t even have a candidate from Reform – I might have held my nose and voted for them, despite revising my opinion of them fundamentally.

10
0
Dr G
Dr G
2 years ago

I was born in London.
At age 1 I moved to Australia with my parents as a “10 pound Pom”.
I had a holiday there when I was 8, and another when I was 52, 9 years ago.
How times change!
As with San Francisco, Melbourne, New York and Seattle, Lefties certainly know how to destroy a decent city.
The fact that Khan looks set for another term says it all.
No desire to live there again.

101
-1
Smudger
Smudger
2 years ago
Reply to  Dr G

if only those of the small government centre Right had one third of the commitment, energy and activism of those on the Left we may be in a better place.

37
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  Smudger

We’re too busy working

38
0
Smudger
Smudger
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

I fully acknowledge that small c conservatives are busy but they are effective, practical hardworking people and that is why I considered that one third of the commitment, time and energy spent by the Left would be enough to turn the ship around.

0
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  Smudger

Good point!

We also don’t like telling other people what to do or how to think.

0
0
Smudger
Smudger
2 years ago

Well done Howard Cox!

40
0
FerdIII
FerdIII
2 years ago
Reply to  Smudger

Just waiting for the Fake News to call him Hitler, anti-semitic, far right and an anti-vaxx science denier who wants to kill Gaia. They can dust off their 10 year old copies and regurgitate.

39
0
varmint
varmint
2 years ago

Too many people, too many cars, too many trains, too many planes, too many beggars, too many criminals, too many drugs, too many knives, too many guns, too many of almost everything you can think of…………..How can a total clutter like that be sorted out? Especially when boat loads of more clutter arrive in their thousands each week.

27
-3
marebobowl
marebobowl
2 years ago

Time for a change. Sadiq has shown his incompetence and is destroying a once great city. Vote for the new guy or forever be ruled by the WEF.

15
0

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

The Sceptic EP.37: David Frost on Starmer’s EU Surrender, James Price on Broken Britain and David Shipley on Lucy Connolly’s Failed Appeal

by Richard Eldred
23 May 2025
7

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

News Round-Up

28 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

Tommy Robinson Released From Prison

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

GB News’s ‘Anti-woke’ Comedy Show Faces Axe After Thousands of Complaints

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

How to Defeat the Westminster ‘Blob’

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

What is ‘The Movement Forward’?

28 May 2025
by Charlotte Gill

Tommy Robinson Released From Prison

32

Tory MPs to Boris Johnson: Thanks, But no Thanks

22

News Round-Up

17

GB News’s ‘Anti-woke’ Comedy Show Faces Axe After Thousands of Complaints

33

What is ‘The Movement Forward’?

11

Alasdair MacIntyre 1929-2025

27 May 2025
by James Alexander

Lies, Damned Lies and Casualty Numbers in Ancient History

26 May 2025
by Guy de la Bédoyère

Lord Frost: “The Boriswave Was a Catastrophic Error”

26 May 2025
by Laurie Wastell

The Legal Case Against the AfD Has Collapsed

25 May 2025
by Eugyppius

Plebeians Can No Longer Rant About Bloody Murder

25 May 2025
by James Alexander

POSTS BY DATE

September 2021
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« Aug   Oct »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

POSTS BY DATE

September 2021
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« Aug   Oct »

DONATE

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

News Round-Up

28 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

Tommy Robinson Released From Prison

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

GB News’s ‘Anti-woke’ Comedy Show Faces Axe After Thousands of Complaints

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

How to Defeat the Westminster ‘Blob’

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

What is ‘The Movement Forward’?

28 May 2025
by Charlotte Gill

Tommy Robinson Released From Prison

32

Tory MPs to Boris Johnson: Thanks, But no Thanks

22

News Round-Up

17

GB News’s ‘Anti-woke’ Comedy Show Faces Axe After Thousands of Complaints

33

What is ‘The Movement Forward’?

11

Alasdair MacIntyre 1929-2025

27 May 2025
by James Alexander

Lies, Damned Lies and Casualty Numbers in Ancient History

26 May 2025
by Guy de la Bédoyère

Lord Frost: “The Boriswave Was a Catastrophic Error”

26 May 2025
by Laurie Wastell

The Legal Case Against the AfD Has Collapsed

25 May 2025
by Eugyppius

Plebeians Can No Longer Rant About Bloody Murder

25 May 2025
by James Alexander

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences