The State's Covid-19 vaccination campaign will soon enter a new phase after the recommendation by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) that the rollout should be extended to children between the ages of 12 and 15. That Niac came down in favour of offering shots to all children in that age group, as opposed to a more limited extension to children with underlying conditions, reflects the high level of confidence among scientists in the safety of the vaccines and the high public-health costs of allowing the virus to transmit widely among younger cohorts.
Opponents of such a move argue that it is unnecessary as children do not suffer badly from Covid-19. It's true that the older you are, in general, the more likely you are to fall seriously ill. Some concerns have been raised about myocarditis – an inflammation of the heart, which the European Medicines Agency (EMA) says is a very rare side effect of the Pfizer and Moderna jabs, particularly for young boys.
The question has divided opinion internationally. The United Kingdom has decided not to vaccinate younger teenagers, for instance, whereas the United States has been administering jabs to over-12s for some time and could offer the shots to the under-12s by the middle of winter.
Understanding how the virus affects children is a work in progress. Important questions are still unanswered about the health impact of long Covid, for example, which could affect children and others in ways we do not yet fully appreciate. With the Delta variant spreading rapidly among young people, and some evidence that it causes more severe disease, there is also a strong argument for vaccinating children as an essential step towards herd immunity – a point argued by the Health Service Executive last week – and so as to reduce the risk of new, vaccine-resistant variants emerging through untrammelled transmission.
The more urgent ethical dilemma relates to the global inequality that the current debate highlights. As Ireland and other western states discuss whether to offer vaccines to children, many healthcare workers and vulnerable adults in developing countries still have no access to a jab and could be waiting months to receive one. Ireland has a strong self-interest in limiting the potential for new variants arising elsewhere; this is a highly-transmissible disease that moves across continents rapidly. Just as important, however, is the "moral catastrophe", as the World Health Organisation calls it, behind this unequal distribution of life-saving shots. Ireland has closely followed the advice of the WHO throughout the pandemic. It is striking, however, that the current debate has been virtually silent on the organisation's call for wealthy countries to hold off on vaccinating children and instead to donate doses to poorer states through the Covax vaccine-sharing scheme.