What parents need to know about the corona vaccination for children
Created: 12/13/2021, 4:22 PM
Pieks: The corona vaccinations for children from the age of five are now starting.
© Jan Woitas / dpa-Zentralbild / dpa-tmn
From this week, children over the age of five can be vaccinated against the coronavirus in many places.
Many parents are happy about it, others hesitate.
What do you have to consider when making a decision?
Berlin - The vaccine is being delivered, the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) has commented: Now this week vaccinations against the corona virus will start for five to eleven year olds.
We answer important questions that parents are now asking themselves:
What are the advantages of the vaccination?
The 7-day incidence is currently particularly high in children.
Without a vaccination, the majority of them will become infected in the medium term, writes the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG).
However, most childhood infections were asymptomatic.
Without a previous illness, the risk of severe disease progression is very low.
In Germany, there have been no deaths from Covid-19 in children without previous illnesses at this age during the entire previous pandemic, said Stiko chairman Thomas Mertens recently.
Some experts argue that vaccination also reduces the risk of possible long-term and delayed effects of Covid-19 disease, including Long Covid and the inflammatory syndrome PIMS.
In any case, the Stiko has so far only been in favor of vaccinating five to eleven year olds with certain previous illnesses.
These include, for example, being very overweight, certain chronic lung diseases, tumor diseases and Down's syndrome.
It is also recommended for children who have contact with people who are at risk of severe Covid-19 courses.
These are, for example, people with immunodeficiency or very old people.
However, there is no general vaccination recommendation: According to the Stiko, all other children of that age can be vaccinated after medical advice, provided that the child and parents have an individual request.
Do doctors have to comply with this “individual request”?
No, you don't have to, as pediatrician Jakob Maske makes clear.
"Of course I can refuse if I am not convinced of the point of vaccination for the child sitting in front of me," says the spokesman for the professional association of paediatricians.
According to his words, what Stiko primarily clarifies with the wording is the following: "We are allowed to vaccinate, but must inform the parents about the residual risk of possible rare side effects that we may not yet know from the data available so far." This applies to both for vaccinations in the practices as well as in the vaccination centers or by mobile vaccination teams.
Which side effects can occur?
Ultimately, the benefits of vaccination should outweigh the risks.
If possible, it should protect against (serious) illness and possible long-term consequences and also reduce the risk of infecting people from a risk group.
The reason why the Stiko has not yet advocated a general vaccination for all five to eleven year olds is that the risk of rare side effects of this vaccination cannot currently be assessed “due to the limited data situation”.
Later adjustments to this recommendation are always possible.
In the United States, according to the CDC health authority, more than five million children between the ages of five and eleven have received at least one vaccination and more than 1.5 million have already received the second vaccination last week.
So far nothing has been known about serious side effects.
The same applies to Israel and Canada, where tens of thousands of children have at least been vaccinated for the first time.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) found a positive risk-benefit ratio for this age group when it approved the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine for this age group at the end of November.
more on the subject
In the case of child vaccinations, wait for EMA and Stiko recommendation
Berlin vaccinates pregnant women and people under 30 with Biontech
Vaccination committee: vaccinate under 30-year-olds only with Biontech
The BMG writes: Serious side effects are not yet known, in the approval study many children had shown temporary vaccination reactions for one to two days.
These included pain at the injection site, headache and fatigue.
Fever, diarrhea, and muscle and joint pain also occurred.
What is special about the child vaccine?
It is dosed lower than the conventional Biontech / Pfizer vaccine (10 instead of 30 micrograms).
The two necessary doses should be given three to six weeks apart.
What do you have to consider after vaccination?
Pediatrician mask advises not to do intense sport for a week.
The background is: This is recommended for 12 to 17 year olds because you know from the data that in very rare cases heart muscle inflammation can occur as a result of the vaccination - and then intensive sport becomes very dangerous.
Such data are not yet available for five to eleven year olds, says Maske.
“Still, I would recommend this as a precautionary measure.” Children should also be careful with normal school sports in the week after.
Going to school by bike, for example, is not a problem.
dpa