You can make an appointment using the NHS Vaccine Website or by calling 119 from 7 a.m. Hundreds of sites will offer vaccinations from Monday, while others will join the program later this week. Dr Nikki Kanani, deputy head of the NHS vaccination program, said the vaccines were still “the best defense” against the coronavirus. He said: “My 13-year-old son got his two vaccinations and I will book my 10-year-old daughter for hers at the first opportunity. “I will encourage all parents to read the available NHS information and think about doing the same.” Candice White, 32, from Nottingham, has three children between the ages of one and 10 and said she would vaccinate them “if she was going to protect them”. “We live in a country where we can get it for free. Why not do it?” But some said they have learned to “live” with the virus and see no point in vaccinating their children now. Like 30-year-old Angela Dyer, who said her five-year-old daughter “goes to school all the time” and is fine. She said: “It’s too early. I do not think it is necessary. If there has been more research around it probably, but I do not think it is necessary for her age group.” Professor Steve Turner, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “This vaccine promises to be very safe, it promises to be very effective. “We know this because other countries use it on their young children as well.” Hassan Ahmed, who has two daughters aged four and 11, said the vaccines were important. He said: “As a family we caught COVID in October and fortunately me and the abusers were vaccinated, double vaccinated, so we were fine, but Ali was very hard hit. “She was not even at the point where she had COVID, it was the recovery period that was too long for her. We waited a long time for the vaccination, it was very short then, but they open it so we want to vaccinate her first and then double vaccination hopefully soon.” Her daughter, Alyzeh Ahmed, 11, said: “I think it’s very important because when I had Covid it was very bad as it got worse every day. “School was very difficult as we had exercise and other things that seemed like a very big day because you have to be sporty and energetic and I didn’t have any of that at the time.” Follow the Daily Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker The expansion of the vaccination program comes as parents of young people suffering from COVID-19 years traveled to Downing Street to ask the government for more support. Scott McFarland’s wife and daughter have both had COVID for a long time and he said the impact on their lives was huge. He said that his daughter had a very active life full of social activities, but now she struggles to attend a whole day at school and “it hurts constantly and she is tired”. “If we had the choice to vaccinate our daughter before and she would have prevented her condition now, then yes, we would have made the decision.”
