Covid and Children: The UK approach

Much has been said about the risks of Covid to children, the benefit-risk ratio of vaccinating children against Covid, the incidence and severity of LongCovid in children, the risks of MIS-C, children and young people's epidemiological role in the pandemic, and much more.

In this session we will explore the UK approach to these addressing questions, and contrast it with the Belgian one.

SPEAKERS

Dr. Alasdair Munro, Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Pediatric Infectious Diseases, NIHR Clinical Research Facility Southampton and University of Southampton (UK)

https://covid19commission.org/alasdair-munro

https://twitter.com/apsmunro

Prof. Dr. Shamez Ladhani, St George’s University of London / Public Health England

Bio:

Prof Shamez Ladhani PhD MRCPCH(UK) MSc(distinction) MBBS(hons) BSc(hons) is a paediatric infectious diseases specialist at St. George’s Hospital, a reader in paediatric infectious diseases at St. George’s University of London and consultant epidemiologist at UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), where he is the clinical lead for a number of national vaccine preventable infections, including Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitidis, which are all major causes of childhood bacterial meningitis.

He completed his medical training at Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals, London, and then worked in a children’s hospital in rural Kenya. Upon returning to London, he obtained his PhD in genetic epidemiology and vaccine failure in children and completed his specialist paediatric infectious diseases training at St. George’s and Great Ormond Street Hospitals, London.

In the current pandemic, he is the clinical lead for of SARS-CoV-2 in Children at UKHSA. His work has focused on national surveillance of SARS-CoV-2, PIMS-TS and long COVID, immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 in children compared to adults as well as infection, transmission and outbreaks in educational settings and COVID-19 vaccines for children.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/events/143982/kidz-kovid-skoolz-dr-shamez-ladhani/

https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=MlyuoXkAAAAJ&hl=en

https://twitter.com/ShamezLadhani

Dr. Michaël Absoud, Evelina London Consultant & Honorary Reader @ Dept of Women & Children’s Health, Life Course Sciences, FOLSM, KCL

https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/michael.absoud.html

https://twitter.com/MAbsoud