Dr. Ronan Glynn:

A key part of the rationale and the process of decision-making or making the recommendations we made recently was that we wanted to give all children aged five to 11 the opportunity to be vaccinated. It is clear that many have. More than 100,000 children have been vaccinated to date. On the basis of the timelines that are there, every child who wants to, can have the opportunity to be fully vaccinated by the time they go back to school after the mid-term break. That was the rationale underpinning that recommendation. It is true that you can go to the pub, but everyone in the pub beside you has had the opportunity to be vaccinated, boosted and fully protected. That is a key difference. The vast majority of the 100,000 vaccinated children have only received one dose. They will get their second dose over the next two to three weeks. Hopefully, many others will come forward and get vaccinated in the interim. Hopefully, at that point we will be in a position to update the recommendation.