‘I feel nothing but despair’: Vulnerable teen pleads to be given access to COVID vaccine

A 13-year-old boy has told the Independent SAGE committee "I feel nothing but despair" after revealing his mental health struggles brought on by the lack of COVID safety in schools.

Zachary Graham described himself as an '"adolescent with underlying health issues who catches normal viruses easily" and went on to detail how within five days of returning to school in September he had become ill and missed the next month of learning.

He said struggling with his physical health combined with the pressure of trying to catch up on missed school work took its toll on his mental health.

"I was scared to go back," he said.

"Some who don't suffer like this, or know what it's like to struggle for breath, don't fully understand the fear, anxiety and effects on my mental health."

Speaking via video link, Zachary detailed how he had caught three viruses over the last academic year and said: "I'm sure you understand my desire not to catch COVID."

He went on: "Come September, school guidelines in England state it is business as usual with all mitigations gone. No masks, no bubbles, no distance, no staggered start and finish times, no one way systems or air filters, and changing together for PE.

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"With most over-18s vaccinated, this has to be the most dangerous time ever for kids in school as the virus jumps to those unvaccinated."

The teenager pleaded for people like him to be offered immunisation against coronavirus.

"Unbelievably, there is still no choice of a vaccine for me, or those like me in the UK" he said.

"I watch millions of other like me in other countries get vaccinated. All I feel is despair."

On Wednesday, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended extending the vaccination programme to cover 16 and 17-year-olds. Once approved by ministers more than a million more teenagers will be eligible to get a vaccine.

Read: Have your say: Do you agree with children aged 12 and over having COVID jabs?

The latest data from the React study, tracking COVID in the population, showed that younger people had driven a recent surge in infections in England, and scientists said extending the vaccine programme would reduce transmission and limit the spread of the virus in winter months.

Asked about giving 16 and 17-year-olds a vaccine, Steven Riley, professor of infectious disease dynamics at Imperial College London and co-author of the React study, said: “Our data would support that in that we’d expect there to be a really good knock-on effect from extending the vaccinations for that group.”

Offering a vaccine to children age 12 and over “would also reduce transmission”, he added.

He said: “What we should probably think about is September, October, November: how much immunity can we have in order to hopefully keep prevalence going down, so there is justification in extending those vaccinations down.”

Professor Paul Elliott, director of the React programme and chairman of epidemiology and public health medicine at Imperial, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The big increase in the virus was being driven by these younger age groups, so anything we can do to reduce transmission in that group would be helpful.”

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