It's Happening Tomorrow: Children Will Get Vaccinated | Israel today

After much discussion on the subject, tomorrow (Tuesday) 11-5 year olds will start getting vaccinated against the corona virus.

Here are all the details to know before starting the immunization operation. 

Children get mild corona or become infected and do not develop symptoms, so why vaccinate them?

Most children infected with corona will be asymptomatic or mildly ill.

But low risk does not mean there is no risk.

As one in every 900 children positive for corona may be hospitalized in a moderate or critical condition as a result of corona and its complications.

Some children may develop a multi-systemic inflammatory syndrome known as PIMS.

They may also suffer from "Long COVID".

Why vaccinate children who are not defined as a population at risk if there is currently a lull in Israel?

The vaccine has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Israeli Ministry of Health, after proving its effectiveness and safety in this age group.

From that moment on, the corona became a preventable disease in children, like other infectious diseases in children against whom it is vaccinated, although now the morbidity levels are not high.

The time to get vaccinated is right now, because the immunization process takes about five to six weeks.

It's time to protect the kids before the next wave.

What about long-term complications from the vaccine?

There are no known adverse effects of vaccinating healthy people, which appear suddenly months or years later, nor does it make biological sense for this to happen.

In contrast, there is a fear that infection with the corona virus will cause further damage that will only be discovered in the distant future, similar to what happens after infection with other known viruses, such as measles that can cause acute encephalitis and death a few years after recovery.

Will the vaccine reduce long-term complications from corona?

It is estimated that vaccination against the virus will significantly reduce children's risk of developing the disease, as vaccines significantly reduce the risk of contracting the virus.

Furthermore, other vaccines developed against other viral diseases have also greatly reduced their later complications.

Girl Receives Corona Vaccine, Photo: Coco

What is the risk and what are the side effects of the vaccine for children?

From experience of monitoring after giving tens of millions of doses in adolescents over the age of 12, the vast majority of side effects from the vaccine are mild and transient: local symptoms such as redness or pain at the injection site, and major general symptoms are weakness, headache and chills.

These symptoms were mostly of mild-moderate severity, and they passed within 48-24 hours.

After a large-scale administration, a rare side effect of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) was discovered.

The maximum prevalence is in boys aged 19-16, after a second dose, and is 1: 6,600, with the absolute majority (95%) being a mild and transient phenomenon.

For children aged 11-5, in the clinical trial about 3,000 children were vaccinated, and there was no case of myocarditis.

Are there 5 to 11 year olds who have already been vaccinated in Israel or in the world?

In addition to the 3,000 children who were vaccinated in the clinical trial conducted by Pfizer, among whom there were no significant vaccine-related unusual events, 163 children were vaccinated in Israel with an exceptional approval due to severe background diseases, and 128 in the first dose and 128 in the second dose.

There was a single case of a significant abnormality in the vicinity of the vaccine (seizure, eight days after vaccination).

Furthermore, according to estimates by U.S. authorities, about one million children of these ages have been vaccinated in Pfizer's first dose, and no reports of unusual safety incidents are known.

Vaccination of children, Photo: Dudu Greenspan

Can an mRNA vaccine enter our DNA?

There is no scientific feasibility to the false claims about alleged genetic damage that may be caused as a result of immunization with these vaccines.

Do children who have been sick in Corona in the past year also get vaccinated?

If so - why?

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that all children, including recovering children, be vaccinated. In Israel, a decision on this issue has not yet been made.

The answers are from Dr. Michal Stein, Director of the Infectious Diseases and Prevention Unit at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, and Chairman of the Israeli Department of Infectious Diseases in Pediatrics, in collaboration with the Association of Pediatricians.