Although we knew it was coming, the US Food and Drug Administration's authorization of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine in children aged 5 to 11 is very welcome news for the global and Israeli fight against the most serious pandemic the world has faced in the last century.
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According to the advisory committee that recommended FDA approval for inoculation in children, the vaccine is safe for use in children because it will limit coronavirus restrictions, including the need for quarantine, and children participating in clinical trials did not develop any unusual side effects.
Israeli approval for the vaccine is fast approaching. On Thursday, the governmental advisory committee on vaccines and the coronavirus will convene to discuss the issue. For the first time in the Health Ministry's history, portions of the debate will be open to the public. The committee is expected to recommend vaccination for children. Later down the line, we should expect to see similar authorizations in Europe and many other places around the world.
The sensitive nature of the decision to vaccinate children is understandable, although seemingly exaggerated since for decades every global vaccine campaign – one of the most important medical technologies ever invented by humankind – has been based on the great success of vaccinating babies and children. This is how the world succeeded in reining in pandemics and preventing the deaths of tens of millions of children and adults.
As is the case elsewhere around the world, the national vaccine program is based on 16 vaccines that have been routinely administered for decades. Within this framework, 16 different vaccines, including polio, mumps, measles, hepatitis, tetanus, diphtheria, the flu, are successfully and safely administered from the day a child is born and until they enter the eighth grade.
In the meantime, healthcare providers across the country are preparing for the arrival of the vaccines for children over the next two weeks, something that will allow 1.25 million children in this age group to get the jab. The Health Ministry has yet to publish all of the details on where they will be administered. Nevertheless, as with all other treatments, vaccines will only be given with parental approval, in accordance with the Patient's Rights Law.
The vaccination of children is aimed first and foremost at protecting the children themselves from the virus, which although it tends to impact children only mildly could still prove to be very serious and even fatal. According to the Israeli Pediatric Association, of the 500,000 children who were confirmed to have contracted the virus, 201 became seriously ill and 11 died. Yet that is not where the virus' impact on children ends. According to UK data, some 4.6% of children who recovered from the virus could develop significant symptoms, such as respiratory problems, sleep apnea, muscle pain, and even diabetes and serious nervous system issues.
The inoculation of children is also aimed at protecting the health of all Israelis. Israel's vaccination rate will grow significantly if a majority of children in this age group get the jab, and the growing vaccination rate could prove critical to the national fight against the pandemic, decreasing the renewed spread of the virus, bringing down mass infections, serious morbidity and death, and limiting the need for quarantines.
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