After the National Consultative Ethics Committee last week, it is the turn of the HAS to approve this Monday the vaccination against Covid-19 for all children over 5 years old.
The decision was eagerly awaited but the High Authority for Health (HAS) wanted to take its time before giving its final opinion. At 2 p.m., the HAS finally ruled on Monday in favor of vaccination against Covid-19 for 5-11 year olds. A decision that follows on from a first recommendation, issued on November 30, in which it recommended vaccination for children at risk of this age group or living in the entourage of an immunocompromised person. For them, access to vaccination opened on December 15.
“The HAS proposes to open vaccination to children of this age group, without obligation and without this being a condition of obtaining a health pass”, can we read in the press release of the HAS published this Monday. “Due to its vaccine efficacy against the major variants currently circulating and its satisfactory tolerance profile, the HAS considers that Pfizer’s vaccine can be used from the age of 5 years”, specifies the HAS. This opinion follows that of the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE), which voted on Friday in favor of the vaccination of children. Just like the HAS, the CCNE accompanied its opinion with several limits before approving with caution this vaccination, considered “Ethically acceptable”.
Parental decision
While the Covid-19 epidemic is on the rise in France, with around 50,000 daily contaminations, the debate on the vaccination of 5.77 million 5-11 year olds remains sensitive. Hearings with stakeholders, results of scientific studies … The government is banking on caution before endorsing its decision. For good reason, serious forms of Covid are rare in this age group.
But in recent weeks, it has become one of the age groups where the epidemic is progressing the most, according to Public Health France. For Alain Fischer, the “vaccine mister” of the government, vaccination will make it possible to act on “The prevention of class closures and on the decrease in the circulation of the virus”. However, it will not be compulsory and will depend on the parental decision. For a child to be vaccinated, he must therefore be accompanied by a parent and a parental authorization form must be signed before the injection. The vaccine administered to 5-11 year olds is a pediatric form, three times less dosed than that reserved for over 12 years old.
The executive has promised to follow the advice of several bodies before deciding definitively. The next expected is that of the Vaccine Strategy Orientation Council, which must decide in the middle of the week, the last step before a government decision.