Australia should not rush into universal vaccination of children and adolescents against COVID-19 given their low risk of severe illness and death, leading paediatricians say.

As the highly infectious Delta variant continues to wreak havoc, there is growing debate about whether those aged 12-15 should be prioritised in the vaccine rollout, given approval of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine in that age group.

Recent outbreaks affecting Brisbane and Melbourne schools, as well as a rising number of Delta variant infections among children in the Sydney outbreak, have led to calls for vaccines to be redirected to under-16s.

But infectious diseases paediatrician Professor Robert Booy, from the University of Sydney, says healthy teenagers “are not the priority”.