Mothers and fathers can still have their offspring vaccinated now, in consultation with a doctor.
At a time when the Delta variant is rekindling concerns about illness with Covid-19 in Germany, vaccination for children is a concern for many parents.
Next week, more vaccine should be available than ever before in the pandemic, the prioritization has been lifted.
But families have to weigh the pros and cons themselves - what they can be trusted to do.
It is important to note that the vaccination must benefit the child himself. It should not serve to iron out failures in school policy or to be able to spend the summer vacation more carefree.
Enlarge image
Vaccinating children (in Israel)
Photo: Sebastian Scheiner / AP
The vaccine offers children a very high level of protection against infection - and thus against rare complications or long-covid, which can also affect children and adolescents with an unknown frequency.
Since last week, the benefits can be better weighed against the possible harm caused by the vaccination.
The US disease protection agency CDC has presented an evaluation of the incidence of myocardial inflammation.
Extrapolated, a maximum of 70 out of a million vaccinees between 12 and 17 years of age could be affected by myocarditis, i.e. 0.007 percent.
The complication mainly affects boys and is usually mild.
On the other hand, according to the bill, there are around 7,000 infections prevented by vaccination, 200 hospital admissions and 2 deaths.
These are numbers on the basis of which parents can decide.
If you want to rely on the Stiko, you don't have to wait long.
The committee wants to reassess the data soon - possibly before the end of the summer vacation.
As the mother of an almost thirteen-year-old daughter, I am glad that there is more and more data available for individual consideration.
And I think the responsibility for such a decision, like any medical intervention, rests with the parents.
Heartily
Yours Julia Koch
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Abstract
My reading recommendations this week:
If you are wearing a mask anyway, it could also provide information about a possible corona infection - Harvard scientists may have thought when developing an FFP2 mask whose sensors can detect Sars-CoV2 and other viruses.
Some people feed the birds in their own garden with a slightly guilty conscience: Do the poultry get used to the grains in the bird feeder too much and can no longer look after themselves?
That doesn't happen, as ecologists at Oregon State University found.
When there are enough worms and berries in the area, birds are less likely to resort to human-made food.
Slept bad?
Then don't go to the sofa, but rather go outside to jog or go for a walk.
Exercise can offset the negative effects of poor sleep, as British researchers have found.
Spiders eat insects, of course, but that's what they weave their nets for.
As the Basel spider researcher Martin Nyffeler found out together with US colleagues, some spiders also like to eat a snake.
Cats love tight boxes to snuggle into - or even just in the illusion of a box, as Gabriella Smith from the City University of New York reports in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science.
Quiz*
1. In what year was a vaccine used for the first time in the history of medicine?
a: 1923
b: 1796
c: 1808
2. Which oral vaccination is currently recommended for children?
a: oral vaccination against poliomyelitis
b: oral vaccination against Covid-19
c: oral vaccination against rotaviruses
3. How is the flu vaccine obtained?
a: using mRNA technology
b: in chicken eggs
c: from the blood of recovered flu patients
* You can find the answers at the bottom of the newsletter.
Picture of the week
The extreme drought in the southwest of the USA
has shrunk Lake Powell in the border area of the states of Utah and Arizona to around 30 percent of its capacity.
In the past twelve months alone, the level has fallen by around 15 meters.
The reservoir, which is fed by the Colorado River, is the second largest water reservoir in the United States and supplies around 20 million people with water.
Researchers see climate change as an important driver of the current drought.
footnote
98.7
percent of severe spinal cord injuries after jumping into shallow water are suffered by men.
Trauma surgeons from Bochum have proven this in a long-term study.
All those affected suffered permanent damage up to complete paraplegia.
Almost half of these accidents involved consuming alcohol before the jump.
An international comparison shows that the number of seriously injured people has not decreased in the last 50 years: In Germany, for example, up to a hundred paraplegia occur every year.
Recommendations from science
Myths: UFO alarm in the sky - the search for extraterrestrial life
Ufology: Surveillance networks are supposed to track down puzzling sightings
Futurology: The science fiction author Karlheinz Steinmüller on the difficult first contact with aliens
Environment: What wildlife accidents reveal about the distribution, way of life and diseases of animal species
Linguistics: The amazing diversity of sign language - and what threatens it
* Quiz answers
1.
b. On May 14, 1796, the English doctor Edward Jenner injected the eight-year-old James Philipps with the vaccine he had developed against smallpox. On July 1st, he infected the boy with the true smallpox pathogen. The child stayed healthy.
2.
c. According to the Stiko recommendation, babies should be immunized against rotaviruses by oral vaccination when they are six weeks old. The vaccination against poliomyelitis (polio) has not been carried out by oral vaccination since 1998, but by injection.
3.
b. Influenza viruses are propagated in chicken eggs and then rendered harmless in a second production step. So it is a so-called dead vaccine.