Association of paediatricians
Healthy children between the ages of 5 and 11 should not be vaccinated yet
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The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) has issued the recommendation for corona vaccinations for children with previous illnesses between the ages of five and eleven. Pediatricians now expressly recommend: All children without previous illnesses should not be vaccinated yet.
“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”. The association is currently advocating wait and see.
Children between 5 and 11 years of age should not be vaccinated
Depending on the age and health of their children, the association believes that parents can wait for an Omikron vaccine, which may be available from spring 2022. Vaccine manufacturers have already announced that they will be working on adapted vaccines against the Omikron variant. So far, however, it is not yet certain whether these will actually be necessary, according to the “German Press Agency”.
For a child from the age of twelve, however, doctors definitely recommend vaccination with the currently approved Biontech vaccine. The background here is also the high incidence in children and adolescents. According to current figures from the Robert Koch Institute, the nationwide incidence among ten- to 14-year-olds is 1020.4. For 15 to 19 year olds at 623.11.
There is already a general vaccination recommendation for 12 to 17 year olds
There has been a general vaccination recommendation for 12 to 17 year olds for a long time. For the little ones between five and eleven, the Stiko currently only recommends a corona vaccination if the child has certain previous illnesses or people with a high risk of corona live in their environment.
And what does that mean for you as parents now? The recommendation of the Stiko is only aimed at parents who have children with previous illnesses or for whom high-risk patients are in the immediate vicinity, but every child can still be vaccinated on request and after medical advice.
In children with previous illnesses, the vaccination can protect against a severe course
What pre-existing conditions are you talking about? The Robert Koch Institute has in one epidemiological bulletin In addition to the explanation of the recommendation of the vaccination, some basic diseases are listed that are associated with an increased risk of severe Covid-19 courses.
These include:
- Obesity
- congenital or acquired immunodeficiency or relevant immunosuppression
- congenital cyanotic heart defects and unicameral hearts after Fantan surgery
- Chronic lung diseases with persistent impairment of lung function (this does not mean well-controlled bronchial asthma)
- chronic renal insufficiency
- Diabetes mellitus
- Trisomy 21
Why does the Stiko not make a general recommendation for vaccination of five to eleven year olds? The chairman of the Stiko, Thomas Mertens, says: “There is no direct indication of a risk of vaccination in this age group, but there is also no sufficiently reliable database to finally assess the safety.” For children in the age group of five to eleven without previous illnesses, there is only a low risk of a severe course, hospitalization or intensive treatment.
Source used: rnd.de, rki.de, dpa.com
This article is up first Eltern.de appeared.