Bring the kids: Estonian city targets young people for jabs

TARTU, Estonia – Accompanied by her father, Gloria Raudjarv, 13, marched through a vaccination center inside a gym in Estonia’s second largest city and to a nurse for her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

So far, around half of Tartu’s adolescents aged 12 to 17 have already received their first vaccine, and local health authorities are working to reach 70% by the resumption of classes on September 1.

“I already really want to go to school, we’ve been learning remotely for so long,” she said, grabbing her vaccination certificate.

Two months after the European Medicines Agency recommended that the coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech be extended to children aged 12 to 15, large disparities in access to vaccination are observed for young people across Europe. Last week, the European medicines regulator also authorized the vaccine manufactured by Moderna for the same age group.

While countries like Estonia, Denmark and France are actively encouraging families to vaccinate their children before the start of the new school year, others like Sweden and the UK have yet to start vaccinations. mass for those under 18.

The World Health Organization, meanwhile, has said children are not a priority for immunization given extremely limited global supplies and the fact that they face a significantly lower risk of serious disease and of deceased. He urged rich countries to stop immunizing children and donate their doses to the developing world instead.

But as the highly transmissible delta variant is creating new infections even as vaccination rates rise among adults in Europe, there are fears that young people are now accelerating the spread of the virus.

Maria Theodoridou, head of the Greek National Immunization Committee, said that a significant increase had been noted in recent weeks in Greece in positive cases in children and adolescents.

“Children and adolescents, as we know, are a source of the spread of the virus,” Theodoridou said, adding that those most at risk were people in the children’s environment who were not vaccinated.

Infected children “will lead to new variants and reduced effectiveness of vaccines,” she warned.

Vaccination remains voluntary for children in Europe, but in Denmark, where more than a third of all children aged 12 to 15 receive their first dose, health officials hope parents will give in to the recommendations to keep all of them. get vaccinated before going back to class.

In France, where a third of all children aged 12 to 17 have received at least one dose, the French education ministry drew criticism this week for announcing that from September unvaccinated pupils of this age group would be expelled from school if anyone in their class receives COVID-19.

Critics said it would create a two-tier education system and unfairly discriminate against children whose parents are anti-vaccine. The WHO has said children do not need to be vaccinated as long as adults at risk around them, including teachers and parents, are protected.

In the United States, only a quarter of the 12 to 15 year olds who had access to Pfizer’s vaccine from May received their second dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of American teens aged 16 and 17, about 37% are fully immunized.

In Estonia, where youth vaccination campaigns are carried out by municipalities, the rapid rollout in Tartu is attributed to a strong awareness campaign through schools and social media, easy registration procedures and an educated population. Tartu is a university and research town.

For teenagers themselves, it’s mostly about seeing their friends again. Estonian schools have been closed for learning at school since February, with a few exceptions for younger children and those taking exams.

Gloria, who is entering 7th grade and aspires to be a singer, is eager to return to the school scene.

“Contacts, interactions, discussions, but also the change of environment, leaving home to go to school is really important,” said Ott Maidre, professor of biology at the city’s Hugo Treffner gymnasium, who lack of face-to-face teaching.

With more than 3,100 adolescents already vaccinated and still four weeks before school resumes, Tartu Vice-Mayor Mihkel Lees is confident that the city will meet its 70% vaccination target for students aged 12 to 17 years. ‘here September 1st.

Otherwise, they have plan B.

“In case we cannot immunize enough children and young people at the vaccination center during the summer,” he said, “the school nurses will join us.

———

Contributors include Jill Lawless and Maria Cheng from London, Elena Becatoros in Athens, Angela Charlton in Paris and David Keyton in Stockholm, Sweden.