Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Friday vaccinating children in the United Kingdom against COVID-19 would take priority over donating vaccine doses to other countries around the world, Trend reports with reference to Reuters.
Britain’s medicine regulator on Friday approved Pfizer/BioNTech’s, vaccine for use in 12-15 year olds, but global health bodies warn that if rich countries prioritise low-risk members of their own populations over broadening access globally, they risk disaster.
Asked he would prioritise vaccinating teenagers over more vulnerable people globally, Hancock said: "My first duty as health secretary for the UK is to make sure that the UK is protected and safe."
"Whilst thankfully children are very rarely badly affected by COVID themselves, they can still pass on the disease, and so that is my first duty," Hancock told Reuters after a meeting of G7 healthcare ministers in Oxford, central England.
"Alongside that I'm working with my international colleagues to make sure that people can get access to the vaccine around the world."