Plans to vaccinate children against COVID-19 are irrational and risk undermining other immunisation programmes, according to a sociology expert.

More than 20 European countries have either already begun vaccinating children aged 12 and over or have announced plans to do so.

In Ireland meanwhile, the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) is considering "all options and scenarios" when it comes to vaccinating 12 to 15-year-olds.

The World Health Organisation has warned that there is “no justification” for vaccinating children in richer countries while poorer countries struggle to access supply, according to the World Health Organisation.

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Jennie Bristow, senior lecturer in sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University, said it makes no sense to vaccinate children.

“COVID is a new disease and it is a new vaccine and there seems to be uncertainty about the extent to which vaccination alone can get rid of the disease,” she said. “The extent to which the vaccines prevent people getting infectious and transmitting the disease.”

“What it does seem to do thankfully is protect people who are at risk of getting seriously ill and dying from Covid. It seems to reduce that risk quite a lot but that is quite a specific demographic group.

“With kids, you have a different calculation because, as a group, they are at very low risk from COVID so you have to weigh up – as is happening in the UK at the moment – the risk versus benefit of it.”

“It is not a straightforward decision to vaccinate children against a disease that is not a huge risk to them.”

She said the discussion around children as vectors who could transmit the disease to more vulnerable people has been “quite disturbing.”

“A much more humane position would be to share any surplus vaccines we have got with countries that desperately need them,” she said.