New breakthrough in vaccination against Covid-19.
On Wednesday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that the production of the children's version of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine would be accelerated and that doses would be available in the European Union as of December 13. .
Last Thursday, the European regulator authorized vaccination against Covid-19 for children aged five to 11 with this product.
They will receive one-third of the dose used for older people over two injections three weeks apart.
The administration of Pfizer is already authorized for children over 12 years old in the 27 countries of the EU.
But, for the moment, the French health authorities only recommend the vaccine for children between five and 11 years old "who present a risk of developing a serious form of the disease and of dying and for those living in the entourage of immunocompromised people. or vulnerable not protected by vaccination ”.
These include children suffering from chronic hepatic diseases, chronic heart and respiratory diseases, neurological diseases, obesity, diabetes, primary immunodeficiency or even with Down's syndrome.
No vaccination in France before the start of 2022
In addition to the HAS, the government seized the National Ethics Committee (CCNE) to decide on the advisability of vaccinating children.
In any case, if it were decided, this vaccination would not start in France before the beginning of the year 2022 ”, recently indicated the Minister of Health.
Speaking at a press conference devoted to the evolution of the pandemic and the appearance of the Omicron variant, she also explained that it would take "100 days" for the scientific community to adapt the vaccine response. to this new variant.