A SENIOR York GP says the UK will have to start thinking seriously about whether to vaccinate children against coronavirus.

The evidence suggests most young people under 18 will not become seriously ill from the virus, says Dr David Fair of the Jorvik Medical Practice - so being vaccinated won’t directly benefit them unless they’re vulnerable.

But vaccinating children would benefit society at large, Dr Fair said. “From the epidemiological viewpoint it makes sense to cover the whole population. It will be difficult to eliminate the virus if you have 10-15 million children walking around and infecting each-other. That would be a huge reservoir for infection to spread.”

Dr Fair spoke out as debate continued to rage over whether the government should delay its June 21 target date for easing Covid restrictions amid worries of a possible third wave of the virus.

The latest figures show that the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England rose by 22 per cent in the week to May 26, reaching the highest level in six weeks. But PM Boris Johnson has insisted that, with Covid deaths at an eight-month low, there is “nothing in the data at the moment” to lead to a delay in lifting restrictions.

Dr Fair said he was "not particularly concerned" about a third wave, because so many people had been vaccinated. “I think that this spike won’t be a very big spike,” he said. But he warned that one of the risks was that the virus could continue to mutate into more dangerous forms. A "reservoir of infection" amongst unvaccinated children could add to that risk.

Dr Fair accepts there would be some resistance to vaccinating children - especially as there has not yet been any proper testing of the vaccine amongst under-12s. But he says it’s a debate we need to have.

“It (the vaccine) is considered to be safe (for children) as far as we can tell,” he said. “But we need to do that testing. And who will let their child go in a trial, when they are not going to get any advantage?”

A snap poll of Press readers on Facebook revealed that 64 per cent of the 1,400 people who had voted by 10.30am today would let their child be vaccinated. “Yes if it helped protect them and helped protect our other ones with health problems,” posted Michaela Taylor Rhodes. “Yes, if it meant protecting them and others,” added Mags Akpoguma Prosser.

But a third of readers who responded were against the idea. “I would like to see the long term effects in adults first and trials involving young volunteers,” posted Ian Davison. “No way on God’s green Earth,” added Tracie Maynard. “I have had my first jab and I was so ill afterwards that I wouldn’t put that on my children.”

Meanwhile, York people were outspoken on the issue of whether the government should delay lifting Covid restrictions on June 21 because of fears of a third wave. Dismissing the idea, Phil Pinder of the York Retail Forum, said: “Zero recorded deaths (one day this week) - I think this is just media scaremongering.” But restaurateur Michael Hjort said the worst thing the government could do was continue to insist it would lift restrictions on June 21 - only to delay at the last minute. “I would rather have a delay announced now than a U-turn later on,” he said.

Should we delay lifting Covid restrictions?