The Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) at the Robert Koch Institute has updated its recommendations for a corona vaccination.
Now she recommends vaccinating all children from the age of 12 and adolescents against the virus.
So far, this has only applied to a certain group of people, for example to people who are particularly at risk from Covid-19 with certain previous illnesses or to those children and adolescents whose households are particularly vulnerable.
The recommendation from June 10th was based on the observation that children and adolescents in Germany have only a low risk of getting seriously ill with Covid-19, that little was known about side effects of a vaccination in this age group and at the same time there were reports of rare There was heart muscle inflammation after vaccination.
The STIKO has now revised this assessment.
New data from abroad
"On the basis of new monitoring data, in particular from the American vaccination program with almost ten million vaccinated children and adolescents, possible vaccination risks for this age group can now be quantified and assessed more reliably," writes the STIKO on its website. “The very rare heart muscle inflammation observed in connection with the vaccination, especially in young male vaccinated persons, must be seen as side effects of the vaccination. In the majority of cases, the patients with these myocarditis were hospitalized, but had an uncomplicated course under the appropriate medical care. "
But more recent studies from abroad have indicated that “cardiac involvement can also occur in COVID-19 diseases”. In addition, “no signals for further serious side effects after mRNA vaccination have occurred, especially not in children and adolescents”. The reassessment of the situation was also due to the fact that current mathematical models, which take into account the now dominant delta variant of the coronavirus, have shown that children and adolescents have a significantly higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection "in a possible 4th . Wave of infection exists ". On the other hand, it remains uncertain whether and how often the phenomenon called "long covid" occurs in children and adolescents. This refers to complaints that usually last for months.
The STIKO also writes: "After carefully evaluating these new scientific observations and data, the STIKO comes to the conclusion that, according to the current state of knowledge, the advantages of vaccination outweigh the risk of very rare vaccination side effects."
For its initially reluctant position in vaccinating children and adolescents, the STIKO was heavily criticized by several politicians and also by paediatricians.