Carolina brunstein
04/29/2021 11:31 AM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 04/29/2021 11:32 AM
Under the relentless fire of a new wave of coronavirus hitting Latin America and especially India, other parts of the world are beginning to breathe with relief.
The
vaccination
, with setbacks and delays, seems to
give good results in Europe and the
United States and strong comeback a key question:
When boys turn comes?
The German laboratory
BioNTech
, which develops the vaccine against Covid-19 together with the American Pfizer, is about to present to the European Union (EU) an application for its drug to
be authorized among young people between 12 and 15 years of age. from June
.
Moreover, the company's experts are confident that the vaccine will be available in the countries of the bloc for all children over six months from September.
This was announced by Ugur Sahin, one of the founders of BioNTech, in a virtual meeting with foreign correspondents accredited in Germany, and which this Thursday is reproduced by the weekly
Der Spiegel
and the Spanish newspaper
La Vanguardia
.
Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of the pharmaceutical company BioNTech.
Photo: REUTERS
"In Europe, we are in the last stages before submitting" data from clinical trials to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and validation "will take between four and six weeks," Sahin said.
For now, the vaccine is authorized only for those over 16 years of age, while there are still
more doubts than certainty
about the benefits or risks of inoculating children.
In fact, the questions about the coronavirus and children are countless: Do they get sick less than the elderly?
Are there more asymptomatic cases than among adults?
Are they silently responsible for the transmission to their relatives?
The global debate on whether or not to open schools is a sample of the conflicting opinions about the potential "danger" of infected children.
Few experts dare to give concrete answers for now.
Throughout the world, as in Argentina, vaccination campaigns began with health workers, the elderly and people vulnerable to a previous illness.
The boys went back to school.
Do they have to be vaccinated?
photo Guillermo Rodríguez Adami
But in the United States and much of Europe, where a large population of adults has already received their two doses of the anti-Covid vaccine, some voices ask to extend the campaign for adolescents, in a first stage, and then the smallest.
Pfizer asks for authorization
In the United States, BioNTech and its partner Pfizer already submitted a request in early April to expand the vaccination authorization and reach the population between 12 and 15 years old.
The pharmaceutical company is based on data from phase 3 clinical trials in this age group published at the end of March that
"demonstrated 100% efficacy"
in preventing the disease, according to these laboratories.
v1.6
The advancement of vaccination
Tap to explore the data
Source:
OWID
Infographic:
Clarín
The vaccine was also "well tolerated and the observed side effects were in line with those recorded" among people between 16 and 25 years old, argued those responsible for the laboratories.
"The evidence so far on tolerability and efficacy is encouraging," said Sahin, who remarked that the availability of the vaccine for boys was a priority for the laboratory from the beginning.
For boys between 5 and 12 years old, Sahin estimates that
there will be more clinical data in July
and that everything indicates that there could be an authorization in September, when the boys return to class in the northern hemisphere.
A secondary school in Turin, Italy.
Teens could be the next to get the coronavirus vaccine.
Photo: EFE
"If all goes well, we could, as soon as the data have been evaluated, request authorization for a vaccine for all minors of each age segment in several countries," added Sahin, who announced that the results already available allow us to think about what the preparation will be "one hundred percent effective".
On Wednesday, Sahin estimated that in Europe it will be possible to reach a "herd immunity (which the scientific community places at least 70%) in July or at the latest in August", and showed his confidence that the vaccine will be
effective against new variants of the virus such
as the one registered in India.
The German expert added, however, that this "herd immunity" does not include boys, who have not been vaccinated.
But he recalled that there were cases of children suffering from covid who had a very bad time and who had some sequelae.
Look also
Boys and Covid: the answers to 5 key questions
When will coronavirus vaccines be available for children?