- It is a very difficult trade-off because we usually vaccinate people to protect themselves.
If we are now to vaccinate children and young people, we do it primarily to reduce infection at the societal level, which places completely different demands on the vaccine, says the professor of pediatrics, Petter Brodin.
He refers to the risk-benefit balance, ie the risk of side effects of the vaccine in relation to the risk of disease.
That balance looks different for children than for the elderly who are at risk of becoming seriously ill from the virus without a vaccine and therefore benefit more from the protection that the vaccine provides.
Wrong that children are not infected
Children are, with a few exceptions, protected from becoming seriously ill by the virus.
Why do not know.
Age plays an important role in morbidity even among children and young people.
After puberty, a change occurs and older teens can become about as ill as adults.
Early in the pandemic, the Public Health Agency believed that the virus did not spread to the same extent in the younger age groups, but this has been shown to be wrong.
Measurements of antibodies in the population show that the infection has been at least as widespread even among young people and then especially among older teenagers.
Older teenagers are driving the infection
- As a group, the children have been very slightly affected, says Petter Brodin.
And when it comes to the question of whether they spread the infection, ie pass it on to others, today it seems that small children are less infected than older people.
Older teenagers, on the other hand, seem to pass on the infection to a fairly large extent.
There are a number of children who have become seriously ill from the virus itself, a few have died but the cause of death is still unclear.
About 240 children have also been affected by the serious disease MIS C caused by the virus.
Delta can speed up decisions about vaccination
Several countries choose to vaccinate children up to the age of 12.
And now that the new delta variant of the coronavirus is spreading, especially among younger people, the question of vaccines for children and young people is even more relevant in Sweden.
The Swedish Public Health Agency has so far wanted to wait with information about vaccines for the younger ones until they know more about how the spread of infection is affected by the adult population being vaccinated, but the spread of the delta variant may change the situation.
However, the issue of the vaccine's safety among children has not yet been fully investigated.
-Right now a new suspected side effect of the vaccine in children is being investigated, a heart muscle inflammation.
If it turns out that this has nothing to do with the vaccine, I think it would be reasonable to vaccinate at least the young people in their late teens, says Petter Brodin.