Vaccination experts are not planning to give the green light for administering Covid jabs to children, a cabinet minister has suggested. 

While other countries such as the US and Israel are vaccinating children to prevent outbreaks in schools, reports suggest that the UK government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) will not be advising ministers to press ahead with a vaccination campaign for under-18s.

International trade secretary Liz Truss told BBC One’s Breakfast: “Of course, the government will look very closely at the JCVI’s recommendations. It is my understanding that they are not recommending the vaccination of under-18s and we will be saying more in due course about that.”

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The UK’s medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for use among children aged 12 and over in the UK.

But as of yet, officials have not confirmed whether the vaccination programme will extend to children once the adult vaccine campaign is complete.

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Meanwhile, some academics have questioned the ethics of offering vaccines to children when it would have little clinical benefit to them

Calum Semple, professor of child health and outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’re now coming into a really interesting ethical and moral debate here about vaccinating children for the benefit of others.”

Experts have also questioned whether it is right to vaccinate children, who have very little risk of becoming severely ill from Covid-19, when many of the most vulnerable people around the world are yet to receive a jab.

Earlier this week, one of the scientists behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab said children should not receive a Covid-19 jab before vulnerable people in other countries have been vaccinated.

Professor Sir Andrew Pollard told Today: “At the moment, the children themselves are relatively low risk of serious infection.

“Then the second question is when to vaccinate children.

“And my view is that we really ought to be using those doses, at this moment, for people in low- and middle-income countries who are at the greatest risk of severe disease.”

Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “We appreciate that the arguments over whether or not to offer vaccinations to under-18s in general are finely balanced, and that the Joint Council for Vaccination and Immunisation is best placed to make that decision on the basis of the available evidence.

“If it has decided not to go ahead with vaccinations at this time, we entirely understand the need for caution and fully accept that decision.

“Vaccinations could help to minimise future disruption to education, but it is essential that they are clearly safe and effective for this age group before any such programme is initiated. If the decision is made not to offer vaccinations to under-18s, it is even more imperative that everything possible is done both to minimise ongoing disruption to education and to recognise the impact of that disruption on children and young people’s learning.”

The NAHT school leaders’ union said: “We believe that making sure all staff are vaccinated is the priority.”