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By Emma Batha
LONDON, March 1 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When
Britain's children return to school next week as the country
eases its third lockdown, six-year-old Daniel Meredith will not
be joining his friends but will remain shut indoors with no end
date in sight.
Daniel has complex medical conditions which could make a
COVID-19 infection fatal but there is no vaccine available for
children yet, leaving thousands of families with little option
but to continue shielding.
"We really do feel like the forgotten people," Daniel's
mother Sara Meredith, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"Our lives are based around fear."
Britain, which has launched one of the world's fastest
vaccine roll-outs, has prioritised inoculations for clinically
vulnerable adults.
But with paediatric trials only just getting under way,
vulnerable children could have a long wait.
Disabilities charity Contact said 61,800 children in Britain
were at high risk of complications from COVID-19.
Some have been confined to their homes since before the
first lockdown began in March last year.
The pandemic has claimed more than 123,000 lives in Britain,
one of the world's worst hit countries.
But with over 20 million people now inoculated, restrictions
on socialising could begin to ease later this month.
Family reunions are not on the cards for Daniel, however.
Meredith, 40, said her son missed his grown-up sisters and
carers, who have been unable to visit them in Walsall, central
England, for a year.
"This has had a massive impact on him. He doesn't understand
about COVID. He sees it as nobody wants him," she said.
"Daniel loved school and was thriving. But I cannot see him
going back this year."
The lockdown has been particularly grueling for parents of
children requiring round-the-clock care like Daniel, whose fluid
levels need to be managed day and night.
Close to tears with exhaustion, Meredith said the family
used to get help from outside carers so she and her husband
could catch up on sleep during the day, but it was too risky to
have them in the house now.
PAEDIATRIC TRIALS
The University of Oxford said it was beginning trials of the
Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on children aged over six in a study
that will run until September 2022, but results could be
available this year.
Pfizer and BioNTech are already evaluating results from
trials of their vaccine on 12- to 15-year-olds. Studies in
over-fives are set for the coming months, and under-fives later
in the year.
The British government says most children are unlikely to
get ill from COVID-19, but in very exceptional circumstances
doctors may give a vaccine "off-licence" to high risk teenagers.
But parents who have tried to get their children immunised
said they had been sent around in circles.
London company director Yvonne Woodford has battled for
weeks to get a vaccine for her 13-year-old daughter Katherine,
who has Down's Syndrome and a respiratory condition requiring
her to use a ventilator at night.
She said Katherine's paediatrician had said she should have
the jab and their local doctor could provide it. But their
doctor, who initially also assumed he could give the vaccine,
later informed her he was not authorised to do so.
In a desperate bid to cut through the red tape, Woodford
took Katherine to her own vaccination appointment, armed with
the paediatrician's letter.
The centre told her they would be shut down if they
vaccinated Katherine.
Woodford is now pushing to get the issue raised in
parliament.
"All the doctors and consultants who know Katherine think
she should have it, but at the moment there's no way of it being
given to her," said the mother-of three.
The health department could not immediately say who, if
anyone, was authorised to give the vaccine "off-licence".
Britain's national health service and paediatric body also could
not shed light on this.
'VERY WORRYING'
Lockdown has not only impacted Katherine's schooling, but
also her health because she cannot go outdoors to exercise.
"We've shut down as much as we possibly can. We don't see
anyone," said Woodford, who has to keep an all-night vigil by
her daughter's bed several times a week after cutting back on
outside carers.
The situation has also impacted her two sons who have
remained largely cooped up indoors even when restrictions have
been eased.
"It's very worrying and absolutely exhausting," Woodford
said. "How long can you expect families to go on like this?"
Her frustrations are shared by Julie Nixon, a mother-of-six
who also fosters three boys with severe learning disabilities
and complex medical conditions at her home on the south coast.
Doctors say the oldest, James, would not survive COVID-19.
"Until he has his vaccine our life can't resume. We're
absolutely desperate for it," said Nixon, 53, who has been
honoured by the Queen for her work in caring for children with
disabilities.
She worries about the longterm impact on the physical health
of her foster sons, who have missed important medical
appointments and physiotherapy normally provided by their
school.
James has outgrown his spinal jacket, but Nixon cannot risk
taking him to hospital to get a new one fitted.
She has also kept her own school-age children off school for
fear they could bring the virus home.
"They have seen no friends, they have not been out and
about, and I worry about their mental health," Nixon said.
"Everyone in Britain is hanging on for the light at the end
of the tunnel now, but there's no light for us yet."
(Reporting by Emma Batha @emmabatha; Editing by Belinda
Goldsmith
Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm
of Thomson Reuters, which covers the lives of people around the
world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)
