Many adults are now vaccinated against the coronavirus.
But what about the children?
In the United States and Canada, 12 to 15 year olds have been vaccinated since May.
Munich - The vaccination race against Corona continues: With Biontech / Pfizer, the first manufacturer has applied for EU approval for 12 to 15 year olds.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected to announce its decision this Friday.
In Germany, however, a vaccination recommendation from the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) does not necessarily have to be followed for all children: At the moment, little is known about the side effects of corona vaccinations in children, explained Stiko member Rüdiger von Kries this week.
"If the risk is unclear, I cannot currently predict that there will be a vaccination recommendation for a general vaccination." Here you can read the most important questions and answers.
What is the difference between a vaccination recommendation for children and an adult?
The federal and state health ministers are striving to offer children and adolescents from the age of twelve a vaccination offer by the end of August (the live ticker for the vaccination summit with Chancellor Merkel here). Biologically speaking, however, children are not little adults. So it is not enough to simply adapt a vaccine dose to your height or weight. In principle, separate studies in the young age group are necessary for each drug. For the application for approval for 12 to 15 year olds, however, a test on only around 1000 teenagers was sufficient for the manufacturer Biontech / Pfizer.
The Stiko is not enough for their recommendation.
"That is far too low to be able to predict rare complications after the vaccination," says Stiko member Martin Terhardt, pediatrician in Berlin.
Therefore, the volunteer body is waiting for more data from the United States and Canada, where the vaccine has been given to 12 to 15 year olds since May.
It could also be that there is initially only a recommendation to vaccinate chronically ill children.
How at risk are children and teenagers anyway?
For medical professionals, as with adults, vaccination is first about individual protection - and only then about protecting the community. The self-protection argument does not apply as strongly to children as it does to older people: They are significantly less likely to develop Covid. According to data from the German Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases, almost 1,550 children and adolescents with Covid-19 had come to the hospital by May 23, 37 percent of whom were younger than a year. Around five percent of these children and adolescents were treated in the intensive care unit, 0.3 percent died. It is assumed that a large number of infections proceed with no or only mild symptoms.
Long-term effects, some of which only appear months after infection, are observed not only in adults but also in minors.
It seems that long-term effects in children are more likely than the acute illness, said Charité virologist Christian Drosten recently.
What about children under twelve?
Stiko member Terhardt does not expect an approved vaccine for this group before the end of the year.
Basically, studies only start with young people.
Later, if there are no abnormalities, they are extended to younger people.
For example, the US company Moderna announced in March that it was already testing its vaccine on children between the ages of six months and twelve years.
Biontech also includes children from six months in its studies.
The company named early 2022 as a target for a vaccine.
Can children be protected in any other way than with a vaccination?
Even the immunization of teenagers up to 16 will take time if approved. But it doesn't have to be a drama. Drosten refers to Great Britain: Four weeks after the Easter break, the infection rate in the school years remains low, he said recently. “It looks very different now than in the partial lockdown in November and December. At that time there were around four times more infections in children than in adults. "
The new numbers from Great Britain are the result of a school with intensive testing and an increasingly vaccinated adult population as well as a far reduced weekly incidence.
“This is really encouraging for school operations.
Vaccinating adults could interrupt the ping-pong effect between schools and households. ”Regarding the situation in Germany up to autumn, Drosten said that it was to be expected that parents of schoolchildren would be vaccinated.
This shielding of the households could hopefully also protect the school operations, so that it could be designed openly with tests.
What does this mean for herd immunity?
According to a study led by Drosten, children and adolescents are just as contagious as adults. The viral load is about the same in all age groups, the researchers report in the journal
Science
. This is why children also count when it comes to achieving protective herd immunity. It can only be achieved if a large part of the population has been vaccinated or has gone through the infection. RKI President Lothar Wieler names 80 percent of the immune system as a target, so far only 14.3 percent of people in this country have been fully vaccinated. Minors make up 16.4 percent of the population in Germany.
Ethics Council member Andreas Lob-Hüdepohl believes that this group also has a responsibility to society.
He could imagine compulsory vaccination for students.
Stiko member Terhardt calls this "absurd".
The reluctance of parents is still very great, said the pediatrician on rbb-Inforadio.
Federal Family Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) confirmed yesterday that there will be no obligation to be vaccinated.
"Our promise is: There will be no compulsory vaccination against Corona - neither for adults nor for children and adolescents."
What does the Minister of Health say?
Jens Spahn (CDU) wants to involve children and adolescents in the vaccination campaign even without a general vaccination recommendation from Stiko, if the EMA is recommended.
The Stiko only give a recommendation, he said in the program "Frühstart" on RTL / ntv.
"In the light of this recommendation, the parents can then make the specific decisions with their children and the doctors as to whether someone should be vaccinated or not." This is an individual decision.
You can find more information about Corona in Germany in our news ticker.