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Thomas Mertens: Looking at the USA doesn't help
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa
The chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko), Thomas Mertens, had said in a podcast in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung at the beginning of December that if he had a seven or eight year old child, he would “probably not have it vaccinated now”.
Now Mertens admitted that he had made a mistake with his personal statement about the rejection of a child vaccination against Corona.
It was a »mistake« »that I said anything personal at all«, Mertens told the news channel »Welt« on Friday.
He firmly rejected allegations that he himself was a vaccine skeptic.
“That's complete nonsense.
I will never be able to oppose vaccination and I have never been, "he emphasized.
On Thursday, the Stiko recommended vaccination of children aged five to eleven who have risk factors for a severe course of Covid-19 or relatives at high risk.
In addition, parents can also have their healthy children vaccinated after they have been informed.
The quote came after a last additional question in a long interview, said Mertens.
At the end of this interview, he said that he would currently not have the child vaccinated without the availability of a vaccine made up for children and without a final evaluation by the Stiko.
That is a completely correct and completely understandable statement.
This was then taken out of context and reported intensively on it.
There are scientifically sound reasons why the Stiko has not issued a general vaccination recommendation for children aged five to eleven, but only for previously ill children.
There is not enough data on the safety of vaccines for children, said Mertens.
A look at the USA does not help either.
Many children have been vaccinated there, but data are needed on what has become of these children.
These are currently not available.
Several federal states are nevertheless preparing vaccinations for children.
Numerous experts also support this.
However, there are also uncertainties, which is why some doctors have so far been reluctant to vaccinate children.
kha / dpa / AFP
