Risks and benefits of vaccinating children against COVID-19
Since Canada and the US authorized use of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine for 12-to-15-year-olds, there has been much debate about whether it makes sense to do the same in the EU, too. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected to announce its decision very soon.
US leaders have expressed optimism that the approval could give a boost to the nationwide inoculation campaign, which has started to flag. EU politicians say authorization for teens aged 12 to 15 could help bring progress toward herd immunity. Studies conducted by BioNTech have shown that the vaccine has maximum efficacy and limited side effects for this age group.
According to me there a few reasons why children should be vaccinated:
- One significant reason is to end the pandemic, and it related to children’s well being. We must protect children from the mental and physical effects of lockdown and other restrictions, or effects of insufficient restrictions, such as school closures due to infection spread. Ending the pandemic is essential to enable children to enjoy the so-called “goods of childhood,” including valuable relationships with friends and extended family (especially older adults), various forms of unstructured play, exploration and intellectual development, and to pursue them in a carefree way in the absence of unavoidable worries about risk.
- Covid-19 presents a substantial risk of harm — including long-term health complications such as organ damage, long Covid, or multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) and death. If the Covid-19 vaccine is as safe and effective as other standard childhood vaccinations (or similarly safe as, it seems, most Covid-19 vaccines are for adults), it would provide parents and guardians with an easy.
- “Like adults, children also can transmit the coronavirus to others if they’re infected, even when no symptoms are present. The COVID-19 vaccine protects against this potential harm to the child and others, including family members and friends who may be susceptible.” Said Anna Sick-Samuels, M.D., M.P.H Johns Hopkins College. So it can be believed that for the safety of others, its advisable to vaccinate children.
Hurdles are high
Though it is mainly the risks of long COVID and MIS-C, that have been used to justify the vaccination of children and adolescents on medical grounds, there are other arguments. Some experts have expressed doubt that it will be possible to really get to grips with the pandemic if under-16s are not vaccinated. Many epidemiologists say that if children are not vaccinated then more adults will have to be vaccinated.
Debate in Israel
Israel is one of the countries that rapidly vaccinated a large proportion of the population, but this number has stagnated at about 60% for the past two months. Some had argued that children should also be vaccinated. However, a survey conducted in February found that only 41% of parents were certain that they would let children aged 6-1 be vaccinated; 29% said they would not.
Though the Israeli Paediatric Association considers the vaccine safe and effective, about 100 doctors signed an open letter calling on the government to wait until more was known about the impact of inoculation. Since there is currently a very low incidence rate in Israel, the question of vaccinating children has now taken a backseat.
Furthermore, clinical trials on Children and teenage group is yet to be accomplished. Standford Medicie or Bharat Biotech have just given nod to clinical trials. So we should wait for outcome
In Europe, too, there is a possibility that there will be a resumption of certain activities once over 60% of the population has been vaccinated. Beate Kampmann from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine argued that there was thus a good case for putting the vaccine to use elsewhere. “If the virus no longer spreads in one society and vulnerable groups are vaccinated, more suffering can be avoided by passing on the vaccine to COVID-19 hotspots such as India than by vaccinating teenagers here.”
