Last Thursday, Pfizer's vaccine was approved for children aged 5 to 11 by the European drug regulator.
Outside the European continent, it has already been authorized for children in this age group in a small number of countries, including the United States, Israel and Canada.
On Tuesday, the High Authority for Health issued a first opinion on the subject: it recommends vaccination among 5-11 year olds for "all those who are at risk of developing a serious form of the disease and of dying and for those living in the entourage of immunocompromised or vulnerable people not protected by vaccination ".
These include children suffering from chronic hepatic diseases, chronic heart and respiratory diseases, neurological diseases, obesity, diabetes, primary immunodeficiency or even with Down's syndrome.
This concerns a total of just over 360,000 children in France, she explains.
For the others, she "will decide later on the relevance of expanding this vaccination after hearing the stakeholders".
"These hearings will aim to shed light on the individual benefit / risk ratio of the vaccination of children for whom the risk of occurrence of a severe form or of death is low with regard to the possible risk of occurrence of rare adverse effects", she adds. .
In recent weeks, the Covid-19 epidemic has experienced a very rapid recovery, with a sharply increasing incidence rate in all age groups, including children.
As a result of the vaccination of children aged 12 to 17, the 6 to 11 age group is now the one, among school children, which has the highest incidence rate, recalls the HAS.
In addition to the HAS, the government seized the National Ethics Committee (CCNE) to decide on the advisability of vaccinating children.
In any case, if it were decided, this vaccination would not start in France before the beginning of the year 2022 ", recently indicated the Minister of Health.
© 2021 AFP