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A child is vaccinated by the family doctor
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Oliver Berg / dpa
Two corona vaccines are now approved in the EU from the age of 12, the preparations from Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna.
The Stiko Standing Vaccination Commission does not recommend a corona vaccination for everyone in this age group.
She currently only advises vaccinating children and adolescents with certain previous illnesses or those with particularly vulnerable caregivers.
However, all others can be vaccinated if they or their parents so wish.
The president of the professional association of paediatricians, Thomas Fischbach, has now sharply criticized the committee. »I'm annoyed by the opaque way people work there at the moment. It is said that the data situation is not considered sufficient, but not why one assesses it that way and also not when it would be sufficient, ”Fischbach told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “In other countries, millions of children over the age of twelve are vaccinated. There must be data by now, ”says Fischbach.
According to Stiko, one of the reasons for not making a general recommendation was that there was still a lack of data on possible risks of the vaccination. The panel had announced that the recommendation could change. "Stiko recommendations are not written in stone," said Stiko member Fred Zepp, former director of the Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at Mainz University Medical Center. "If we have expanded knowledge in a month or two, then we still have a lot of leeway until the start of school to discuss it again and possibly adjust it." The sentence fell on June 11, a good six weeks ago.
Since then there has been quite new data.
At the end of June, the US Vaccination Commission ACIP dealt intensively with the risk of cardiac muscle and pericardial inflammation after RNA vaccinations and came to the conclusion: Even for those 12 and over, the benefit of vaccination clearly outweighs this risk.
A new statement from Stiko is still pending.
more on the subject
Corona protection: vaccination for 12 to 17 year olds - what speaks for it, what against itBy Nina Weber
Social impact not taken into account
The pediatrician Fischbach also criticized the fact that the Stiko did not take into account factors such as herd immunity or social effects such as an increase in child welfare risk if there were to be restrictions for children again.
Fischbach appealed to adults to get vaccinated to protect children.
Shortly after the Stiko recommendation was published, Fischbach had expressly welcomed it: “We can work with this recommendation - it defines a clear group and still leaves room for individual vaccination decisions.
At the same time, Stiko is sending out a signal that the decision to vaccinate still rests with science and medicine, doctors and patients - and not with politics! "
Because there is no general recommendation for vaccinating the age group, the hurdles for parents to get vaccinations for their children are higher.
Because not all doctors are ready to vaccinate children and adolescents for whom the criteria of the Stiko recommendation do not apply.
The vaccine is no longer in short supply
In addition to concerns about safety, the Stiko also mentioned the shortage of the vaccine as an important point in its recommendation published on June 10: “As long as many adults with a significantly higher risk are still unvaccinated, redistributing vaccines to healthy children and adolescents is epidemiological and does not make sense in terms of individual medicine, ”it says there.
In the meantime, the vaccine is no longer scarce in Germany, more is being delivered than is being used, and the number of daily vaccinations is falling. Vaccination centers, medical practices and company doctors report that demand has fallen significantly. Not all adults are vaccinated yet. But those who want can increasingly do so without booking an appointment. For example, Baden-Württemberg has announced an action week, which is why spontaneous vaccination is possible in many places in the state. A general vaccination recommendation for 12 to 17 year olds would therefore no longer mean that adults would have to wait longer for a vaccination appointment.
On Wednesday, Stiko member Eva Hummers emphasized that it was still not clear "whether the vaccination might or to what extent it might pose a risk to the children."
You therefore consider further waiting is necessary, said the professor at the University Medical Center Göttingen.
Primarily adults should be vaccinated.
"It cannot be that we now hold the children responsible and say that they have to be vaccinated in order to protect adults who are unwilling to vaccinate in their environment."
wbr / rtr