Lauterbach Ministry contradicts Stiko - and gives wrong vaccination recommendations for children
Created: 12/26/2021, 09:40 AM
From: Andreas Schmid
Karl Lauterbach at the federal press conference on "Child Vaccination and Corona".
© Chris Emil Janssen / Imago Images
The Federal Ministry of Health advertises the corona vaccination in children on its website - and puts words in the mouth of the Stiko that were never formulated in this way.
Berlin - Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) has recently repeatedly emphasized the importance of vaccinations for protecting children from the corona virus.
This is the best protection for children in the pandemic, said the doctor last during a visit to a vaccination center in Hanover, where he vaccinated two children himself.
The Ministry of Health is currently promoting the vaccination of the smallest in society - but its vaccination recommendation differs slightly from that of the Stiko.
Corona vaccination in children: Ministry of Health names wrong Stiko recommendation
The Ministry has published a “Decision-making aid for parents and guardians” on its website. The text aims to provide information about child vaccination. In the second sentence, the Federal Ministry of Health writes: "The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) at the Robert Koch Institute recommends vaccination with an mRNA vaccine for all children and adolescents between 5 and 11 years of age and from 12 years of age." However, this formulation is not entirely correct . Because the Stiko recommendation does not apply to
all
children.
At the beginning of December, the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) initially only recommended corona vaccinations for children with previous illnesses or with high-risk patients in their environment. For all other children, Stiko has given parents and doctors the option of deciding for or against the vaccination. The 15th update of the Covid-19 vaccination recommendation states: "The Covid-19 vaccination can also be given to five to eleven year old children without previous illnesses if the children and parents or guardians individually request medical information."
In other words, vaccinating children is possible in Germany, is practiced by some doctors - and is also accepted by interested parents.
An unrestricted vaccination recommendation for
all
children, as suggested by the Federal Ministry of Health, does not exist in Germany.
The inaccuracy again does not cast a good picture on the communication between Stiko, RKI and the Ministry of Health.
Recently, the authorities have often disagreed.
The Stiko is subordinate to the RKI, which as a federal authority in turn belongs to the Federal Ministry of Health.
Video: Stiko: Child vaccination recommended for pre-existing conditions
Corona vaccination for children: Ministry speaks of "somewhat inaccurate" information
On December 9th, Stiko issued the restricted vaccination recommendation for five to eleven year olds. According to Stiko boss Thomas Mertens, the necessary data was missing for a comprehensive assessment. “The data basis for a general recommendation is not given at the moment from the perspective of the Stiko.” There are scientifically sound reasons why the Stiko has not issued a general vaccination recommendation for children from five to eleven years of age, but only for previously ill children. There is not enough data on the safety of vaccines for children, said Mertens.
Meanwhile, Lauterbach emphasizes that child vaccinations are safe. The risk of heart muscle inflammation is so low that children should be vaccinated rather than unvaccinated exposed to the pandemic. And especially with the new Omikron variant, it is still being checked whether this causes more severe disease progression, especially in children.
At the request of
Merkur.de
, the Federal Ministry of Health explains that the brochure linked to the text was created before the Stiko recommendation.
“The anteaser text on the homepage may be a little inaccurate, we'll take another look at that.” But it is also true that “all children from the age of 5 can be vaccinated”.
Stiko boss Mertens was irritated to our editorial team about the corresponding text passage.
“I cannot tell you why the BMG chose this formulation.
It may be a
simplified representation
. "
(As)
