Israel begins immunizing children ages 12-15 against COVID-19

With 63.03% of its population vaccinated with at least one dose against COVID-19 and with 59.35% fully inoculated, according to figures from the Our World in Data monitor, Israel advances in vaccination campaign, after being added to the youngest age group.

Today, Sunday June 6, hundreds of of children between 12 and 15 received their first doses of coronavirus vaccines, since the start of the vaccination plan for their age groups in Israel, country which has accumulated around 839,566 infections and 6,418 deaths from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to figures from the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center.

The country’s health ministry approved coronavirus vaccination for this age group on Wednesday last week, after a study on the possible relationship between the vaccine and heart inflammation in young men indicated that the risks of myocarditis are lower than those of contracting COVID-19. Following the green light from the health portfolio, healthcare providers such as Clalit, Maccabi and Leumit have started offering shifts.

According to the study results, the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was linked to cases of myocarditis in men aged 16 to 30, and the risk decreases with age. However, According to estimates from this research, most vaccine-related cases were mild and only lasted a few days.

Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle that can be caused by a viral infection, but it also appears as a reaction to a drug. Symptoms include chest pain, arrhythmias, and shortness of breath.

According to data from the health agency, 275 cases of myocarditis were recorded in Israel between December 2020 and May 2021. Most of the patients did not spend more than four days in the hospital and 95% of the cases were classified as mild.

Most patients were discharged from the hospital within four days, and many cases have been reported in men between the ages of 16 and 30.

Some 630,000 young Israelis now eligible for coronavirus vaccine and, as was the case with adults, receive two injections of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine three weeks apart.

According to a spokesperson for Maccabi, Israel’s second-largest supplier, some 10,000 teams have already been booked. In Mehudet around 1650 and in Leumit still hundreds.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency clearance to use the Pfizer vaccine in young people on May 11, and so far hundreds of thousands of young Americans have been vaccinated.

The FDA has determined that Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Meets Legal Criteria and the known and potential benefits of this vaccine in people 12 years of age and older outweigh the known and potential risks, which justifies its use in this population.

The vaccination plan in Israel, as well as the containment measures, notably reduced the number of contaminations in the first half of 2021. Without going any further, yesterday, only 27 cases of contagion were reported; the day before yesterday, 7; and June 3, 15, según Our world in data.

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