The UAE Ministry of Health has authorized the vaccination of children over 3 years old. This follows clinical trials launched last June.
Children abroad get vaccinated against covid-19 at younger and younger ages. In the United Arab Emirates, the government announced on August 2 on Twitter the opening of vaccination to children and adolescents from 3 years old, LCI reports. Minors will thus be able to access doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine. This authorization is the result of clinical trials and a “rigorous evaluation” of the effects of the vaccine on young people.
As the news site reminds us, last June, the city of Abu Dhabi (capital of the country) indeed launched a test on a group of 900 children of different nationalities. In mid-July, Sinopharm said in a press release that it had completed phases I and II of its clinical trials in 3-17 year olds. The participants received two doses and generated antibodies against the virus, with no significant difference in their immune system compared to adults, according to the lab. They concluded that the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine was effective for this age group.
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The United Arab Emirates are not the first to vaccinate children this young, since China had done so a few weeks earlier, with the Sinovac Biotech vaccine. For Chinese scientists, the vaccination of children and adolescents is essential if we want to achieve collective immunity against the virus.
In France, vaccination is open to minors over 12 years of age, with mandatory parental authorization for those under 16.