COVID-19: Dusk debut for children’s vaccination

Only 2% of the 5-11 years received a dose of anti-Covid vaccine since the beginning of the campaign, December 20, 2021.

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Started on December 20, 2021, vaccination of 5-11 years is experiencing a dusk start. At the date of Sunday, January 9, according to the figures of the Ministry of Solidarities and Health, 115,000 children in this age group had received a dose – of which 20,000 during the weekend – only 2% of The eligible population.

We are far from the success of the vaccination of adolescents who, on January 10, according to the numbers of the department, were nearly 80% to have been vaccinated. “The vaccination of the teens worked in an extraordinary way because there was a form of constraint if they wanted to continue to live normally their life as a teenager. Without vaccine, they might be” emmerred “, to use an expression at the Fashion “, Advance François Angoulvant, pediatrician at Robert-Debré Hospital in Paris.

The children, they do not suffer this strong incentive, which is a good thing, says the one who also presides over the Francophone group of resuscitation and pediatric emergencies (GFRUP). But this contributes to what the brakes are more important than for teenagers. According to François Angoulvant, one of the reasons that explain this low parents’ adhesion – they are the ones who decide, even if the child must be consenting – is the perception of a lower risk incurred by the youngest against SAR-VOC. -2, and its Omicron variant in particular.

Fears raised on side effects

“The parents have heard that their children did not risk a serious form, which is true, even if it can exist in a very minority way,” explains Etienne Javouhey, head of department of emergencies and pediatric resuscitation at the Bron’s mother-mother hospital, near Lyon. Patients, they are often asymptomatic, with low fever, nothing that can worry parents.

What profit for the child? For pediatricians surveyed, it is real even if the argument is not always. “We hear a lot that vaccination does not protect the risk of transmitting the virus.” What profit is there? “, I’m asking me often, what I’m saying that the Delta Variant, more dangerous, is still circulating,” says François Angoulvant. Some COVID acute cases have been observed in children.

There is also another serious form of the disease, which can occur a few weeks after the infection: the pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (PIMS). According to a study of public assistance-hospitals in Paris (AP-HP), published on December 20 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), as well as American data centers for control and disease prevention, show that vaccines protect to more than 90% against PIMS.

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/Media reports.