STIKO recommends vaccination for all five to eleven year olds


The number of corona cases will increase again in autumn. The Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) assumes this and has therefore fundamentally revised its recommendations for a corona vaccination. The committee has changed its previous recommendation, especially for children aged five to eleven years. Now not only children with previous illnesses should be vaccinated, but all children of this age should receive at least one vaccination dose. This is suggested by the improved data situation. The experts advise using Comirnaty from Biontech as a vaccine. Alternatively, Spikevax from Moderna is also possible.

The wording of the current decision of the STIKO, which was published in the “Epidemiological Bulletin” on Tuesday, says:

  • Children with previous illnesses should continue to receive basic immunization with two vaccinations and a booster vaccination.
  • Healthy children should receive basic immunization with two vaccine doses if there are contact persons in their immediate vicinity who are at high risk of developing a severe course of Covid 19 and who cannot be safely protected by vaccination themselves.
  • In addition, the STIKO initially recommends only one Covid-19 vaccine dose for all other children.

The aim of the one-time vaccination of healthy children is to build up the best possible basic immunity as quickly as possible. If improved vaccination protection should become necessary in the future, this could easily be achieved with a greater interval between the first and second vaccination. The vaccination interval improves and prolongs the protective effect. In addition, the risk of heart muscle inflammation (myocarditis) could be reduced.

If a child has already contracted Covid-19, the vaccination should be administered no earlier than three months after infection. And for healthy children who have already received two doses of the vaccine, no further immunization is initially necessary. However, STIKO wants to comment on this again in late summer. Then when the number of cases is expected to increase again.



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