The chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko), Thomas Mertens, would currently not have his own seven-year-old child vaccinated against the corona virus in view of the lack of data.
He said that in the FAZ podcast for Germany.
According to him, beyond the data from the registration study of the vaccine, there is “no data” on the tolerability of the vaccine in the group of children between the ages of five and eleven.
The current publications showed that statements about long-term damage are hardly possible.
Precisely because corona infections in children are usually harmless, you have to be all the more sure that the vaccination is well tolerated in the long term.
Stiko is faced with this consideration.
The changing mood in the public and among politicians could not be the measure for the decision of the commission, whether a vaccination of children is recommended.
"Wrong political decisions cannot be corrected by vaccination." Mertens also criticizes the fact that the unwillingness of 18 to 59 year olds to be vaccinated should now be compensated for by vaccinating children.
General recommendation not yet sure
Mertens denies that Stiko is waiting to issue the recommendation for the children's vaccine. The Stiko is currently in the process of finalizing its recommendation. "It will surely be ready before the children's vaccine is available in Germany." He expects the recommendation to be completed around December 11th. The recommendation serves the greatest possible safety for the children. The task of Stiko is to create a country-specific indication for the vaccine after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved it.
Finally, one still has to find out what the vaccination of the young age group means for the progression of the pandemic, says Mertens. At this point in time, he could not say whether it would result in a general recommendation for the age group of children from five to eleven. The lack of data on the children's vaccine currently speaks against a recommendation. Data from the USA and Israel, where child vaccination has already started, are not yet available.
Studies on the disease burden of children had also shown once again that this was "extremely low". Long-term damage in children in the young age group is also hardly known to date. "If the disease does not play a serious role for the person to be vaccinated from a medical point of view, one must be all the more certain that the vaccination is well tolerated in the long term," emphasizes Mertens. Stiko is currently facing this weighing problem.
The European Medicines Agency approved Biontech's children's mRNA vaccine in mid-November.
Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) said on Wednesday that the vaccine would be delivered to the EU member states on December 13th.
Originally it was not supposed to take place until December 20th.
The USA granted emergency approval of the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine for five to eleven year olds at the end of October.
The vaccine for adolescents aged twelve and over has been approved since May.