Chris Whitty says COVID-19 transmission highest in children
September 23, 2021, 9:13 am

Chris Whitty says COVID-19 transmission highest in children

Covid-chilldren

The Menafn reported according to Reuters, England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said on Wednesday that COVID-19 transmission was currently highest in 12- to 15-year-olds, and that almost all unvaccinated children would get infected at some point.

All those in the 12-15 age bracket in England are to be offered a COVID-19 vaccine after Whitty and his colleagues said last week that children would benefit from reduced disruption to their education.

"There is definitely substantial transmission happening in this age group," Whitty told lawmakers. "In fact, the age group we're talking about is the one in which the highest rate of transmission is currently occurring, as far as we can tell."

Britain reported 34,460 new COVID cases on Wednesday, and has averaged over 20,000 new daily cases since late June.

Whitty said the vaccine advice focussed purely on the benefit to the children, and had not been made for political reasons or for the benefit of more vulnerable adults.

Although around half of children have probably already had COVID-19, he said, protection may wane and a vaccination programme would be less disruptive to schools than if the children caught COVID-19.

He said: "The great majority of children who have not currently had COVID are going to get it at some point."

"It won't necessarily be in the next two or three months but they will get it sooner or later because this is incredibly infectious and because immunity wanes, we're not going to see a situation where it just sort of stops at a certain point."

Whitty said vaccines would reduce the risk of infection by 50%, possibly more.

The highly transmissible Delta variant, now dominant in Britain, has made health officials around the world reassess how the pandemic is managed, and especially the impact of vaccines on transmission.

"We do not think it is possible to stop completely transmission," Wei Shen Lim, COVID-19 chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, told the lawmakers.

"That does not mean that there will be no impact on transmission."

Source: menafn

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Upon arriving to participate in the summit of the European Political Community, which includes around forty heads of state in Budapest, he said, "I look forward to sitting with the elected U.S. president and seeing how we will collectively ensure we meet challenges, including the threats from Russia and North Korea." He also noted that the strengthening of ties between Russia and North Korea poses a threat to the United States as well, according to reports from Agence France-Presse.

Before Trump's victory, Rutte expressed confidence that a united Washington would remain part of the defensive alliance, even if Trump became the 47th president of the United States. In an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF last Monday night, he stated that both Republicans and Democrats understand that NATO serves not only the security of Europe but also that of America. He added that both candidates are aware that the security of the United States is closely tied to NATO.

On Wednesday, NATO congratulated Trump on his victory but did not address the Ukrainian issue.

It is noteworthy that the relationship between the elected U.S. president and the defense alliance was not the best during his first term in the White House. Trump criticized NATO member states multiple times and even hinted at withdrawing from the alliance unless they increased their financial contributions.

Additionally, the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war is one of the matters that complicate relations between the two sides, especially since Trump has repeatedly stated that he can end this ongoing conflict, which began in 2022, quickly. He implied that he had a peace plan between Kyiv and Moscow, while his vice president, JD Vance, revealed aspects of that plan, which stipulated Ukraine's commitment not to join NATO, thereby sending reassuring signals to the Russians.

Furthermore, many NATO member states in Europe fear that Trump might halt military aid to Ukraine after he previously criticized the U.S. for pouring funds into supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.