When it comes to vaccinating children, emotions boil.
Three paediatricians in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district support it.
It is important to them: You have to take your parents' concerns seriously.
District - Some doctors in the district do not want to comment.
They don't feel like the threats they have already received.
Or on the stickers on their mailboxes: "Vaccination kills".
Oliver Michael from Murnau didn't have that yet.
But for those: "Compulsory - no thanks".
Stickers that he has to laboriously scrape off.
Writing that doctors like him should stop vaccinating landed in his mail - as with colleagues.
On some weekends the pediatrician drives past his practice to see if someone is up to mischief.
Head physician at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Clinic: Many parents are unsettled
In general, the topic of vaccination is a topic of discussion. Vaccinating against Covid-19 divides. Especially with children. Michael would like to have a chat with the anonymous critics. In these days in particular, he considers speaking and explaining to be essential - just like his colleagues. Clemens Stockklausner emphasizes several times that the parents' worries must be taken seriously. Many are insecure. "With this topic, the emotions boil up," says the chief physician of the children's department at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Clinic. So he speaks less about experiences in his daily work. There he is seldom confronted with it directly. In the circle of friends and acquaintances, however, he regularly experiences the worries and fears that concern parents. And also the anger. "Why should I have my children vaccinated just because adults refuse toto protect yourself? ”Diplomatically, Stockklausner says that he has heard much less objectively.
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Dr.
Clemens Stockklausner believes it is important to take parents' concerns seriously.
© Dominik Bartl
The chief physician understands the question, his colleague Michael supports it: In his eyes, basically children and adolescents - meanwhile the Standing Vaccination Commission also recommends immunizing children between the ages of five and eleven with previous illnesses or if they so wish - hold out their arms to ensure that Adults fail to meet their responsibilities.
“Actually a shame.
A scandal. ”With which he is in no way arguing against vaccinating children.
Neither does Stockklausner.
Does he advocate vaccinations for those aged five and over?
“Of course.” The question doesn't even arise for him.
Doctors see children with severe disease in intensive care units: "Each one is a drama"
His older son (9) already had Corona.
With a mild course - as with most children.
Nevertheless, Stockklausner will have him and his younger son (6) vaccinated.
Because he doesn't worry about side effects.
Because he cares about more than symptoms.
And because he has seen cases that didn’t turn out to be mild.
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Dr.
Gerhard Steinberg has a particular focus on the social impact.
© Josef Hornsteiner
Small children ended up in intensive care and had to be ventilated. Only a few, "but each one is a drama". Then there are the cases of PIMS, a syndrome that occurs after the corona infection has healed. “The children die of it if it is not treated.” He knows that for many this topic is far away, they don't see how the little ones fight against high fever, conjunctivitis and inflamed coronary arteries. The medic does. The four cases from the past few weeks in his house touch him. Any PIMS disease that can be avoided should be avoided, he stresses. A vaccination probably contributes significantly to this. For that reason alone, he advocates it. In any case for children with previous illnesses, but also for healthy ones. This could minimize another risk: that a child infects its father,who ends up in the intensive care unit. Stockklausner knows such a case.
Dr.
Gerhard Steinberg experienced.
“I don't want to build up fear,” emphasizes the pediatrician with a group practice in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Mittenwald.
The severe courses are rare.
"But playing down the whole thing, I think it's naive."
Pediatrician from Garmisch-Partenkirchen: "It's about the whole thing"
But not everything is about the disease alone. Even if children rarely need the vaccination as individual protection, "it's about the whole thing", about the consequences, the bitter restrictions for children and adolescents, says Steinberg. He particularly emphasizes the social aspect. School and day-care center closings, the end of club sports and training with friends - all of this must be avoided, the three doctors agree. Also in the fact that vaccinating children helps. This is a contribution to finding a way out of the pandemic, emphasizes Stockklausner. "Without a vaccination we cannot get out of these permanent lockdowns, out of this endless loop of significant restrictions for the children," confirms Steinberg.
Vaccinated people can pass the virus on.
But not that easy, counter the doctors.
According to current knowledge, the protection reduces the so-called viral load, thus reducing the risk of infection.
For the three doctors, the benefit clearly outweighs the risk.
Murnau pediatrician: Hardly any side effects in vaccinated adolescents from 12 years of age
Stockklausner lets the numbers speak for themselves. Five million vaccinated children in the USA, with hardly any side effects and no heart muscle inflammation - a side effect that has been warned about again and again - say a lot for him. The Murnau pediatrician Michael uses his own experience as an argument. He has vaccinated around 600 young people from the age of twelve in the past few months. On one hand he can count the cases in which they showed any side effects at all: two complained of headaches, two of flu-like symptoms. That's it
He now also vaccinates children with BionTech - they receive a third of the adult dose.
He wants to make an offer so that everyone has the opportunity to have their child vaccinated.
“I would like to take some steam out of the discussion.
And calm down, ”says Michael.
That’s what Steinberg’s colleague is about: Yes, he recommends that parents should be vaccinated.
"But we want to enlighten, not proselytize."