All children ‘to be offered flu jab’ amid fears of horror winter

All children in Britain could be offered flu jabs this autumn amid fears that the UK could be facing one of its worst flu seasons in history.

Those under the age of 16, as well as over 50s, will be included in the rollout, alongside millions of others with common health conditions, according to the Telegraph.

Sources told the paper that vaccinations will be expanded this year to cover all pupils at secondary school, making it the biggest immunisation programme on record.

Jabs are usually only granted to under-fives, primary school pupils, and those in the first year of secondary school.

However, scientists have suggested that Britain could face a critical epidemic this winter as lockdowns and social distancing mean the population has less immunity.

One source said: “We are worried we are in for a really bad flu season this year, so we are looking to expand the programme again, and to include all secondary school children, for the first time.”

Another said: “The orders went in some time ago, there is major concern about flu; much more worry about the impact of flu on children than there is about Covid on them.”

Infants and children are being prioritised for the programme because they can act as “superspreaders,” meaning they are immunised not just to protect them but also to stop the spread of the virus in other groups.

Last year the flu vaccine programmes offered jabs to 30 million people, including everyone over the age of 50, and almost 10 million children aged 11 and under.

This year the programme will be extended further, adding around four million children aged from year seven to year 11, with instructions due to be announced by the Department of Health within weeks.

It comes as health secretary Sajid Javid said ministers were “very aware” of the low levels of natural protection built up against flu this year, because of lockdowns.

Despite this, Mr Javid said Britain could not afford to delay reopening.

The minister said: “If you don’t start opening up now, when? Because opening up now, going into the summer, all the public health officials that we have, the scientists, our epidemiologists are saying that it’s much better to open up going into the summer… than just waiting to do it in the winter.

“We know we’re going to have winter pressures.

“This year what we’ve got to be very aware of is that with flu... we have a much lower level of immunity that we normally have because there basically was hardly any flu last year, because of all the controls we had in place.

“So we do need to start opening up, we feel very comfortable with the plans we set out, despite the rise we’re going to see in infections.”