COVID-19 vaccination in children in England: uptake, safety and effectiveness

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of children globally with major health, social and educational consequences. Lockdown, social distancing, and school closure had major impact on the wellbeing of children and on their mental health. If on one hand the COVID-19 vaccination does not seem to have strong direct benefits for children (who are less likely to develop severe COVID-19), it is evident that there were many indirect benefits for the younger population, the more important a return to a social life.

Whilst clinical trials show vaccines to be safe and effective in children, it is important to see how safe these vaccines are when used in the real world. This is because the trials might not be large enough to pick up rare adverse events in children. Moreover, less is known on how safe and effective these vaccines are when administrated together with one of the other common childhood vaccines, such as influenza vaccine. Currently parents and carers are asked to consent for administration of these vaccines, and more information will be helpful to them to make a full-informed decision.

It was also seen that during the pandemic, fewer children received some of the more common childhood vaccines. This might result in resurgence of some infectious diseases which have so far been controlled by vaccines, especially as we are returning to a normal life, were people are travelling and social distance is not respected.  

Using information routinely collected in healthcare records is one way of seeing what happens when the vaccines are given in the real world. We will be able to look at how many children have received the influenza vaccine and if there were changes in the rates before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (with and without vaccines). Similarly, we can count how many children had the COVID-19 vaccine. 

We will also study how safe the COVID-19 vaccines are and compare the risks of possible side effects with risk after other vaccinations and after each relevant infection. We will also find out how safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccine are if they have been administrated together on the same days or in a short window of time.  

Anonymised health records from GPs linked to vaccination information and data on COVID-19 infection and hospital admissions contain the information needed to answer these questions quickly and on very large numbers of children. This project will assess the uptake, effectiveness and safety of childhood vaccines in children to provide easily understandable timely information for clinicians, parents and carers and policy makers.    

Amount Awarded: £30,268