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RReports suggest the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization will soon allow Covid vaccines for 16 and 17 year olds, while continuing to limit injections for 12 to 15 year olds to those who are clinically vulnerable or living with those at risk .
The move will bring Britain further in line with the United States and many other European countries, several of which have gone further by opening up vaccination to everyone over 12 and already achieving first jab rates of 40% or more. more, although others are more careful.
France
France started offering the Covid vaccination to everyone over 12 on June 15 and more than 2 million children, or around 40% of the 12-17 age group, have up to now received a first injection. The move sparked bitter feuds among some couples, prompting the government to drop the parental permission requirement for older teens and, for 12 to 15 year olds, require approval from only one parent. . From the end of September, young teens will join those over 18 in needing a ‘health pass’ – showing proof of vaccination or a recent negative test – to visit cafes, places of entertainment and events. public, take a long-distance train or participate in organized sport. “Imagine a successful film with 400 teenagers in a cinema”, declared the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran. “It must be the sanitary pass, or outright shutdown.” From the start of the school year, unvaccinated college students will also have to switch to distance learning if a student in their class is positive.
Spain
Spain’s vaccination effort is regionally led, so adolescent vaccination rates vary widely, with over 40% of 12-19 year olds receiving at least one dose in some but only around 1% in others. Catalonia, for example, only said this week that it would start allowing young people between the ages of 12 and 15 to make appointments for vaccines. The central government has said it would like teens to be vaccinated at least two weeks before the start of the school year in September. Acceptance of the vaccine among the age group appears to be very high, according to Amós García Rojas, head of the Spanish Association of Vaccinology. But he warned of a “deeply unfair situation”, calling for “a balance between the deployment of vaccines in developed countries and solidarity in providing vaccines to developing countries so that it can all come to an end.”
Italy
Italy aims to vaccinate the majority of adolescents before the start of the school year in September. The Pfizer vaccine was cleared for 12 to 15 year olds in late May, with reservations in most areas from July, and last week the Moderna vaccine was approved for 12 to 17 year olds. A communication campaign to boost the adhesion of adolescents made it possible to encourage nearly 35% of 12-19 year-olds to be vaccinated, 18.62% having received both. The decision sparked little controversy: Fabrizio Pregliasco, a virologist at the University of Milan, said last week that children should be vaccinated from the age of two. “They are also involved in the chain of contagion and being vaccinated means that as they get older they will already be covered in case they contract the virus,” he said. “In this way, by involving children and adolescents in the vaccination campaign, we will be able to achieve herd immunity. “
The Netherlands
Starting with older adolescents, the Netherlands started offering vaccines to over 12s early last month, with the decision whether to accept or not left with the child – although it is advisable to 12 to 16 years old to discuss it with their parents. Health Minister Hugo de Jonge has said he hopes as many people as possible will accept the offer to avoid school closures.
Sweden
Sweden only started opening appointments for minors this month, and only for young people aged 16 to 18, with the 21 health regions due to follow “in the next few months”. Children aged 12 to 16 are so far only eligible under special conditions such as belonging to a risk group or living with people at risk.
Germany
The debate is more heated in Germany, where the Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, declared this week that children and adolescents could soon “decide to be vaccinated … and thus protect themselves and others”. The country’s standing committee on immunization, Stiko, however, has so far explicitly recommended injections only for 12 to 17-year-olds if they are at risk, citing insufficient data on possible long-term effects. So far, 20% of cohort 12-17 have had at least one injection and almost 10% are fully vaccinated. Ruth Stein, who has three children aged five to 14, said politicians “put unnecessary pressure on parents before the new school year, to get their children vaccinated or to be accused of being selfish … Children don’t don’t usually get the bad coronavirus, and they shouldn’t have to be vaccinated to protect the rest of society. Others are impatient: A father said he didn’t hesitate to get his two older boys vaccinated 12 and 13 years old last month, although he had struggled to find a doctor willing to do it. “It is always more advantageous to be vaccinated and to avoid the disease,” he said. said, “There is little evidence to support fears of long-term effects, despite all the noise from social media.”
United States
In the United States, about 40% of young people aged 12 to 17 have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Adoption was initially strong, with around 600,000 teens receiving their first vaccine within a week of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine being cleared for 12 to 15 year olds, but slowed down after reports linked the vaccine to rare cases of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, in young people. It has also fallen prey to the country’s politicized climate: The Tennessee Department of Health grabbed the headlines after a backlash from some lawmakers resulted in all adolescent vaccination campaigns being stopped. The Centers for Disease Control continues to recommend that everyone over 12 be vaccinated. “When I see states across the country and some governors saying that they will not promote vaccines for these children, it puts me off because it is possible to protect these children and the people who come into contact with these children. “, he added. its former interim director Richard Besser told CNN.
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