Nature: Should children receive COVID-19 vaccines?
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Nature: Should children receive COVID-19 vaccines?
Nature: Should children receive COVID-19 vaccines? Nature megazine discussed gains and losses.
We have been very concerned about the progress of children’s COVID-19 vaccine.
In particular, with the beginning of the fall, public schools in the United States have basically resumed face-to-face courses, and elementary and middle school students are at double the risk of contracting COVID-19 . It is necessary to comprehensively consider the illness of children infected and the protection/side effects of vaccines to determine more Excellent choice.
On July 20, 2021, Nature magazine published a scientific interpretation of whether children should be vaccinated against COVID-19 in the news commentator section.
First of all, is it necessary for children to be vaccinated against COVID-19 ?
That is, how harmful is the COVID-19 virus to children? This is the most critical issue.
For the answer to this question, different countries have different choices.
On July 19, the British vaccine consultant recommended that most children under the age of 16 be postponed to vaccinate, because even if this age group is infected with the COVID-19 virus, the possibility of progressing to a critical condition is very low.
We have previously interpreted the data on children’s new coronavirus infections in the UK.
The three most important children’s COVID-19 essays were released collectively, which corrected the mortality rate of children and found the risk factors for death.
In the first year of the COVID-19 epidemic, a total of 25 children under the age of 18 died because of the COVID-19 virus in the UK, and nearly half of them were accompanied by serious underlying diseases.
It is not recommended that most children be vaccinated against the COVID-19 , which means that the British vaccine consultants put the impact of the COVID-19 virus on children even after the flu. You know, European and American countries strongly require children to be vaccinated against influenza.
To be precise, the British vaccine consultant suggested that for the time being, only children who are clinically prone to aggravation and children who live with adults who are prone to aggravation should be vaccinated. That is, to protect children who are easy to develop into a critical condition and adults who live with them.
However, from April 19, 2021, the United States began to vaccinate children over the age of 16 with Pfizer/BioNTech’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The clinical trial of the vaccine for younger children is also underway, and it will be difficult to approve the use of the vaccine for children under 12 before the end of the year.
But in more countries, people still know little about the impact of COVID-19 on children. Especially in Africa, children’s doctors have no way of knowing the fatality rate of children with COVID-19, let alone knowing what happens to children infected with the COVID-19 virus in cases of combined malnutrition, combined tuberculosis or HIV infection.
Second question: Is it safe to vaccinate children?
Medical treatment has always weighed the pros and cons to get the worst results. Because there is no perfect medicine, and there is no perfect vaccine.
At present, the mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna, and the inactivated virus vaccines produced by China Kexing and Sinopharm Group have been clinically tested in children. Therefore, several countries, including the United States, Israel and China, have also begun to vaccinate some children under the age of 18.
So far, the published test results have shown that the vaccine is safe.
Nevertheless, as we have been concerned about, Pfizer mRNA vaccine is directly and potentially related to heart inflammation in children (especially men) vaccinated. Adenovirus vector vaccines are definitely related to fatal venous thrombosis in young women, and adenovirus vector vaccines are potentially related to the occurrence of Guillain-Barré syndrome.
Although the incidence of these associated side effects is extremely low, if you consider that the risk of critical illness in children is also extremely low, the vaccination or not requires more careful consideration.
Third, what is the impact of child vaccination on the COVID-19 pandemic?
Although children have a low risk of becoming critically ill and dying after being infected with the COVID-19 virus, the risk of children contracting the COVID-19 virus is not low. Especially considering that the new school year is about to begin, children will face-to-face classes together, so children with low vaccination rates are likely to become new sources of infection and virus mutations.
From the perspective of establishing herd immunity, child vaccination is imperative.
The UK seems to have abandoned the goal of establishing herd immunity through vaccination, and instead put the responsibility of epidemic prevention on individuals; therefore, the British approach is naturally different.
The last question is, is it fair to vaccinate children first?
Ha, this is a question that has been discussed for a long time. Because some people think that because of the lack of vaccines, in many countries, people at high risk of the COVID-19 virus have not yet been vaccinated, and it is unfair to vaccinate children now.
To be honest, there is no answer to this question. Of course, top journals like Nature must also raise this question; I am not qualified to discuss this topic.
Isn’t this obvious? Countries that produce vaccines have high vaccination rates at the beginning, and they spread from the oldest to the younger.
If you ask “Why vaccinate children in these countries first, instead of vaccinating adults in Africa first,” it is similar to asking “Why don’t the whole world get vaccinated simultaneously according to age groups?”
Someone must question it from a humanitarian perspective, but it has not affected countries that have vaccines to give priority to ensuring their own people’s vaccination.
Expert Comments:
In fact, different vaccines, different infection environments, ages, and children’s own health conditions determine this very individual choice.
1. When children go indoors, they must continue to wear masks; good non-drug intervention is very important;
2. Will continue to pay attention to the analysis report on the severity of children infected with the COVID-19 virus, but there is no very complete analysis yet;
3. We will continue to pay attention to the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine, and choose vaccines with minimal side effects as much as possible. However, the side effects of some vaccines are far from complete.
The probability of British children being infected with the COVID-19 and dying from illness is 2/100 million. This is the data basis for the UK to temporarily give up and most children vaccinate.
Just imagine, if you don’t get vaccinated, the probability of children being infected with the COVID-19 and becoming critically ill is less than 1/100,000, and most of them occur in children with underlying diseases; and if after vaccination, acute transverse myelitis or gilanbarre occurs The possibility of serious adverse reactions such as syndrome is higher than 1 in 100,000. How would you make a decision?
(source:internet, reference only)
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