Should healthy children be vaccinated against Corona – even though the vaccines have not yet been adapted to the Omikron variant? This is what paediatricians and vaccination experts say.
The corona vaccinations for children in Germany start this week – specifically for the age group of five to eleven year olds. But does vaccination make sense for children at all?
The omicron variant and the work announced by vaccine manufacturers on an adapted vaccine might raise the question for some parents of how useful it is to vaccinate a healthy child with the previous vaccine. Experts are divided. An overview:
Pediatricians: Better to wait first
“We do not generally recommend vaccination to healthy children between five and eleven years because of the residual risk of still unknown rare side effects,” said the spokesman for the professional association of paediatricians, Jakob Maske, of the German press agency. “Therefore, in this case, we also advocate waiting for the time being.” With a child from the age of 12, on the other hand, you can definitely start vaccinating. “I wouldn’t wait for an omicron vaccine,” said Maske.
For children from the age of 12 there has been a general vaccination recommendation from the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) for a long time. For smaller children, on the other hand, the Stiko has so far only advised corona vaccination if they have certain previous illnesses or people with a high corona risk in their environment. However, if desired and after medical advice, every child can still be vaccinated.
Infectiologist: “Don’t have time to wait”
The specialist in microbiology, virology and infection epidemiology Jana Schroeder (Mathias-Spital Foundation, Rheine) advises against speculating on the potential availability of an adapted vaccine in a few months. Germany still has a problem with the Delta variant. “The vaccination works much better against them than against Omikron. It is currently also unclear whether Omikron will completely replace Delta.”
So far there is still no data on how well the vaccination protects against severe disease in the case of an omicron infection: “It is known that the T cells that are important for this are more stable than antibodies, even when they react to variants.” That means: Protection against severe courses is also assumed against Omikron.
“We should take the first observations of severe progression in children from South Africa seriously, even if such fears have not come true with earlier variants,” said Schroeder. “An accumulation of severe cases could be a coincidence – or not. It will take months until there are clear findings from studies. As rapidly as the virus is spreading, we do not have the time to wait, but should also base our decisions on it of data from the ongoing infection process. “
Schroeder also refers to data from the United States, where after five million doses of the attenuated vaccine for five to eleven year olds, according to the CDC, no cases of cardiac muscle and pericardial inflammation have been reported.
Pediatric pulmonologist: Better vaccination than infection
Even if many parents feared that the protection of the vaccines was no longer so good: “The vaccines protect very well against the still dominant Delta variant and also offer a certain protection against omicrons. In any case, this is better than no protection have “, says senior physician Folke Brinkmann from the University Children’s Hospital in Bochum. She advises vaccination rather than infection – and also cites a benefit for the everyday life of children: Vaccinated persons, for example, do not have to be in quarantine. “How infectious the new Omikron variant is in the end and how severely it affects children is currently still unclear.” The benefit of the corona vaccination for the individual child is not as great as for old people, for example those over 80, says Brinkmann. In spite of the overall lower burden of disease, children who have not been previously ill would also be treated on the ward for Covid-19 or the PIMS inflammatory syndrome. “Individuals have a hard time.” Some children in this age group also had to struggle with long-term effects such as low resilience and palpitations. Such diseases as a result of the infection are also known from other viruses and, from Brinkmann’s point of view, should be taken seriously, even if the incidence in children has not yet been reliably quantified.
Brinkmann assumes that research results from the USA and Israel regarding the vaccination of children who have not been previously ill will be available shortly. This will then also have an impact on any updated Stiko recommendation.
Vaccination Committee: No final opinion
“Ultimately, Omikron shouldn’t be a criterion for parents in their vaccination decision, as there are still too many uncertainties associated with it,” said Stiko boss Thomas Mertens last week to the dpa. Even the first reports from South Africa about severe courses in children are not yet so reliable. It takes more time and well-designed studies for the assessment.
Stiko member and pediatrician Martin Terhardt said on Monday in the ARD-Mittagsmagazin: “If parents want to protect their child, then it certainly makes sense to vaccinate now and not to wait for a new variant of the vaccine. Because it’s not announced until March and we don’t know whether it will be approved for children immediately.
The use of the lower-dose vaccine for five to eleven year olds in Germany should begin this week. Because of the strongly mutated Omicron variant, which is increasingly causing infections in several countries, vaccine manufacturers have announced that they will be working on adapted vaccines. So far, however, it is not yet certain whether these will actually be necessary. Biontech had also announced that a new vaccine would not be immediately available in large quantities if production were to start up in March.
According to experts, adults should take advantage of the booster vaccination because of their higher corona risk. This would raise the antibody level in the blood again. This is also important for protection against omicron.
Source From: Stern
