They recommend vaccinating teenagers

An increasing number of European countries are shifting the focus of the vaccination campaign to children after, according to the latest data, 75,6 percent of the adult population in the EU has been immunized. Countries that have decided to immunize teenagers cite as reasons to contain the spread of the delta strain and the development of more dangerous variants of the coronavirus.

Britain decided yesterday to offer the covid-19 vaccine to all children aged 12 to 15 after leading medical advisers yesterday said it was a way to reduce the damaging effects the pandemic is having on the education system.

The Chief Medical Officers (CMO) recommended that children between the ages of 12 and 15 receive the first dose of the Pfizer BionTek vaccine, after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) decided earlier this month not to recommend vaccinating teenagers.

The United States, Israel and some European countries have moved to vaccinate children, which has put pressure on the British government to do the same.

In Britain, 19 people died of covid-134, and the vaccination process slowed down the epidemic, Reuters reports, adding that 000 percent of those over the age of 81 received two doses of the vaccine.

The JCVI previously said their decision not to recommend vaccinating children was "balanced" after the government sought further advice on the matter.

Chief medical officials stated in the letter that vaccinating children would reduce the transmission of covid-19, as well as mitigate the consequences for education as there would be no school closures, and that because of these advantages, they decided to recommend vaccination for this age group.

"Vaccination will reduce interruptions in education," he said Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer. "We don't think it's a silver bullet or a final solution...but we think it's a potentially useful tool to reduce the public health consequences of educational disruptions."

The chief medical officers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said the first dose of the Pfizer BionTek vaccine should be offered to all children and young people aged 12 to 15.

In Great Britain, until now, vaccination was recommended for children who are in a vulnerable category due to other diseases. Medical officials said the second dose would not be offered to children until next spring, pending international data.

The "Guardian" points out that the CMO statement also states that the benefits of vaccinating children, bearing in mind that they generally develop a milder clinical picture of the disease, are significantly less than in adults and that in this sense it is necessary to take it into consideration.

"If ministers accept this advice, it is essential that children and young people aged 12 to 15 and their parents receive support for their decisions, regardless of what they are, and that they are not stigmatized for accepting, or not accepting, vaccination . Individual choice should be respected," the announcement states.

Jeff Burton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Principals, welcomed the decision, but said many members of the association have already received letters from certain groups threatening lawsuits if their schools participate in vaccination programs.

"Such actions are very harmful and we ask those who send us such letters to stop putting pressure on schools and colleges. The question of whether vaccines should be offered to this age group was obviously thoroughly considered, and the decision on whether to accept the offer should be made within the family," he said.

"Although the evidence suggests that children are less likely to develop severe symptoms of covid, the damage caused by school closures is very real and obvious, in terms of educational disruption as well as the impact on children's mental state and well-being," he added.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the use of Pfizer's vaccines for children aged 12 to 15 in May this year, the first vaccine to receive such approval in the EU.

The approval was based on a study involving 2 children in this age group, which showed that their immune response was consistent with that of 259- to 16-year-olds.

In July, the EMA approved the use of Moderna's vaccine for children aged 12 to 17 years. 3 children participated in the pre-approval study.

The EMA admitted that due to the limited numbers in both studies, they could not detect rare side effects. However, it was concluded that the benefits of vaccination for this age group outweigh the potential negative effects.

Despite the European regulatory agency having approved vaccines for this age group, not all EU governments and health agencies have followed suit.

Among the countries that recommend vaccination for children over 12 years old are Italy, Germany, France and Poland. Immediately after the EMA approval, Italy announced that its goal was to vaccinate most teenagers before returning to school. According to data from August in Italy, about 50 percent of teenagers received the first dose, and 28,39 percent of them were fully vaccinated.

About four million students returned to school in Italy yesterday after the summer vacation and following the government's decision to avoid distance learning.

All teachers will need a green pass - proof that they have received at least one dose of the vaccine, that they have had covid-19 in the last six months, or that they have a negative test not older than 48 hours.

In Germany, vaccination was initially recommended only for children from vulnerable categories, but due to the spread of the delta strain, on August 16, it was decided to offer the vaccine to all children over the age of 12.

France was one of the first, on June 15, to open vaccination centers for people over 12 years of age, and Switzerland did the same in June. Denmark also recommended vaccination of teenagers, and in that country 80 percent of the population over 12 received both doses of the vaccine.

BionTek is preparing a vaccine for children over the age of five

In an interview with the German "Spiegel", the founders of the BionTek company, Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureči, said that in the next few weeks they will present the results of a study conducted for a vaccine intended for children aged five to 11 years.

Answering the question of a journalist from "Spiegel" whether this means that five-year-old children could be vaccinated as early as mid-October, which would be a significant move, especially if parents' fears are taken into account that a strain could soon develop that could be more dangerous for children and teenagers, the founders of BionTek said that they cannot influence the authorities to approve the use of vaccines.

However, they noted that the results of the preliminary study for children are encouraging. “Things are looking good. Everything is going according to plan," Tureči said.

She also said that they are preparing for the production of the vaccine and pointed out that it is practically the same vaccine as for adults, but with a smaller dose.

"If the ministers accept this advice, it is essential that children and young people aged 12 to 15 and their parents receive support for their decisions, regardless of what they are, and that they are not stigmatized for accepting or not accepting vaccinations. Individual choice should be respected," said a statement from British medical officials