Against omicron, European countries begin to vaccinate children

Several European countries began this Wednesday (15) vaccination against Covid-19 for children aged 5 to 11 years, in an effort to combat the spread of the pandemic and keep schools open in the face of the spread of the omicron variant.

Germany, Greece and Hungary are among the countries that started the campaign to immunize children with a strong demand from parents, according to doctors, due to fears provoked by the contagious new variant.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned on Wednesday in the European Parliament that the micron could be “the new dominant variant in Europe in mid-January”.

With 66.6% of the bloc’s population vaccinated, the European leader encouraged countries to work to increase the immunization rate because “the price we will pay if people are not vaccinated will continue to increase”, with effects for Christmas parties or closings of schools and other activities.

Despite being one of the countries with one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe, Spain created a television campaign to promote immunization among children aged 5 to 11 years, crucial to breaking the chain of infections in its surroundings.

Spain has 3.3 million people in this age group. A survey by the Appinio Institute shows that 74% of Spanish parents with children between 5 and 11 years old intend to vaccinate them.

The start of the campaign in Europe comes a day after the WHO (World Health Organization) warning about the unprecedented spread of omicron, reported in 77 countries, but which has probably already reached more nations.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved in November the application of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years, an age group that registers an increase in infections in the continent.

This is an adapted version with a lower dose than usual and with a pediatric bottle with an orange cap to distinguish it from the violet colored caps used in older patients.

The vaccination of children has already started in several countries, such as the United States, Denmark, some regions of Austria, Bolivia or Chile, in the latter case from the age of 3 years.

In the United States, the first large country to expand vaccination to children, over 5 million children have already been immunized.

keep schools open

In Greece, Education Minister Niki Kerameus was one of the first to take his son to hospital to receive the vaccine. The country already has more than 30 thousand appointments for the application of doses in children.

The demand is also intense in Germany, said doctor Jakob Maske, a spokesman for the German Association of Pediatricians.

Maske, however, believes that vaccinating children will not be a major inflection point in the fight against the fourth wave of Covid-19 in Germany.

“The 5 to 11-year-olds represent only 3% of the German population,” he told AFP.

But for the director of the German Teachers Association, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, vaccination “significantly increases the possibility of keeping schools open.”

Other European countries, such as Italy, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Cyprus or the Baltic nations, will launch similar campaigns in the coming days. Some are still debating what should be done.

France has approved vaccination only for children at risk of developing a severe form of the disease, but the government is considering expanding the measure to all voluntarily.

Switzerland has regulatory approval, but the campaign will likely not start until January. Belgium and the United Kingdom await the recommendations of their regulatory agencies.