Children vaccinations, the United States and the United Kingdom are targeting summer. In Israel they did it already – Corriere.it

The United States plans to have teens vaccinated this fall and plans to move forward with the youngsters early next year. In the UK, the government intends to introduce immunization for young children (between 6 and 17 years old) as early as August as soon as data on the safety of the vaccine become available. AstraZeneca In this band is expected between June and July. at IsraelWhere the vaccination campaign is taking place, 600 children between the ages of 12 and 16 They received the first doses of Pfizer / BioNtech (approved by the EMA only for more than 16 seconds) without experiencing serious side effects. In San Marino, vaccinations began with Pfizer yesterday for about 700 children between the ages of 16 and 18 who are residents of the Republic.

Restricting virus circulation

It is clear that if we want to at least approach herd immunity by limiting the spread of the virus as much as possible and the risk of new variants emergingThe pediatric squad cannot be deleted, Which represents a quarter of the world’s population (in Italy the proportion of people under the age of 18 is only 17%). We can see vaccinating the young from two points of view: limiting the spread of the virus within society and protecting the children themselves, who, although rarely infected with a serious disease, comments the immunologist. Antonella Viola, Professor of Pathology at the University of Padua. In any case, it would be impossible to achieve at least community immunity in the future without vaccinating minors, given that even a number of adults would not want or would not be able to get the vaccination.

Options

We must therefore discuss whether we want to aim for the greatest possible immunity, including the young, or whether it will be sufficient to protect the most vulnerable by allowing the infection to spread among unvaccinated children who generally do not become seriously ill (without neglecting Immunization in those classrooms where there are children who are immunocompromised and therefore cannot protect themselves). However, I think that since this disease causes some children somewhat aggressive symptoms with long-lasting effects, it would be a good idea to vaccinate them, adds the immunologist.

Ongoing trials

In general, vaccines that have been tested and evaluated as safe and effective for adults also work in children, although they do not always maintain the same levels of effectiveness. All pharmaceutical companies that have obtained approval for the vaccine from regulatory agencies in the West have begun to conduct trials on children, some of which have started as early as November 2020. Moderna announced a few days ago that it had launched a study that would test its vaccine from 6 months to 11 years and phase 2 began. -3 trials on the first 6,750 healthy children registered in the United States and Canada. Children will be followed up for one year to verify the safety, tolerability and efficacy of the vaccine. In a separate study, Moderna is already testing its vaccine on 3,000 children between the ages of 12 and 17 and results are expected by summer. Johnson & Johnson has also begun testing its single dose on older children with the goal of trying it later even on toddlers and newborns (among the select centers there is also Buzzi in Milan). Pfizer-BioNTech is testing its vaccine on children between the ages of 12 and 15 and has announced that it will soon be switching to younger classes.