The SPD health politician Karl Lauterbach has asked the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) to reconsider its restricted recommendation for the corona vaccination of children.
“In Great Britain there are already many children with Covid in the clinic.
The Standing Vaccination Commission argues that Covid is harmless to children.
In my opinion, this does not apply to the Delta variant, ”Lauterbach told the Rheinische Post.
With the Delta variant, the number of hospital admissions is much higher: “The Robert Koch Institute assumes a hospitalization rate of 11 percent, which is twice as high as with the Alpha variant.
The difference is big, especially with younger people, so the Delta version is a problem, especially for children, ”said Lauterbach.
No general recommendation from Stiko
The Stiko has not yet issued a general vaccination recommendation for children and adolescents from 12 years of age.
She recommends vaccinations only for 12 to 17 year olds with certain pre-existing conditions such as obesity, diabetes and chronic lung diseases.
The committee justified its recommendation almost three weeks ago, among other things, with the fact that the risk of severe Covid 19 disease was low for this age group.
“The information from the Stiko always relate to old variants,” criticized Lauterbach.
“Infecting children with the Delta variant is too risky.
And alternating lessons are not a solution. "
At the same time, he suggested that more should be done to attract vaccine skeptics.
“In Israel, the incidence is rising again despite the high vaccination rate and great weather.
It turns out that real normalcy will only come with a very high vaccination rate. ”He assumes that a vaccination rate of more than 80 percent is necessary.