The EU recently approved a corona vaccine for young children. According to the Standing Vaccination Commission, only a small part of the age group up to four years should get the spades. The panel determined risk factors.
The Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) recommends the corona vaccination for children from six months to four years with certain previous illnesses. The recommendation also applies to children up to their second birthday who were born prematurely, the committee said. The aim is to prevent severe courses of Covid-19, hospital treatment and deaths.
According to STIKO member Martin Terhardt, risk factors include being particularly overweight, congenital immunodeficiency, heart defects, chronic severe lung diseases, chronic kidney diseases, neurological diseases and tumor diseases. These groups correspond to about ten percent of the age group.
For healthy children of the age mentioned without previous illnesses, the STIKO currently does not recommend a corona vaccination, “because severe courses are very rare in this age group and the vast majority of infections in healthy children are mild or asymptomatic”.
For the vaccination of children from six months to four years, the children’s vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer (Comirnaty), which was recently approved in the EU and has a lower dose, should preferably be used. Three doses (at intervals of three and eight weeks) are necessary for a primary immunization. Two doses of vaccine are recommended for children who have already had a corona infection.
In addition, STIKO adjusted its recommendation for children under the age of twelve with contact to risk groups: Previously, for example, relatives at high risk of a severe course of Covid 19 were considered a reason for vaccination. This recommendation is now being “relativized”, writes the STIKO.
“Current data show that the vaccination only protects against the transmission of the omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 for a short period of time and that this protection against infection is not reliable,” it said. Therefore, the STIKO recommends an individual assessment, taking into account the parents’ wishes.