Mr Maske, the chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO), Thomas Mertens, said in the FAZ podcast that if he were the father of a seven-year-old child, he would not have it vaccinated against Corona at the moment.

As a pediatrician, how do you feel about this?

Anna-Lena Ripperger

Editor in politics.

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At first, that was an awkward statement that was also misunderstood.

But basically this is in line with our attitude: If I have a healthy child between the ages of five and eleven, with healthy parents, grandparents and siblings, then there is currently no need to vaccinate this child quickly.

Here you can calmly wait for the following STIKO recommendation, and it is still pending.

But the pressure among parents seems to be high.

So-called off-label vaccinations, in which children are injected with an adjusted dose of the adult vaccine beyond the approval, are sometimes in high demand.

I can understand that parents are afraid that their children will be infected.

There are always cases where children have to be quarantined because one of the group or class is Corona-positive.

Of course, this always upsets everything in the families and their surroundings.

The desire for more normalcy for the children is still not enough for you to justify a vaccination?

We always have to start from the current situation.

We currently have a very low burden of disease in healthy children.

This means that the children become infected - we can see that from the high incidences - but they rarely get sick.

When they get sick, the symptoms of the illness are usually very simple and not serious.

Only very, very rarely are there severe courses or deaths.

But these are absolutely isolated cases in healthy children.

We should therefore wait until we have enough data to make it clear to children in the age group five to eleven that the vaccination has more benefits than risks.

How do you rate it when doctors are already vaccinating healthy children in this age group?

First of all, it is a free medical decision, and every doctor has to form his own opinion - and then vaccinate or not.

Of course, there are already individual situations that allow a vaccination without the STIKO recommendation and without a child vaccine delivered: for seriously ill children or serious illnesses in the family.

If you, as a doctor, have carefully weighed the opportunities and risks with your parents, you can definitely do that.

But to vaccinate healthy children extensively “off label”, I see and we as an association do not see the situation at the moment.

What is the mood like among paediatricians with a view to the planned vaccination start?

We follow this with mixed feelings.

The majority of paediatricians are of course happy that there is finally a vaccine that we can vaccinate with approval in this age group.

At the same time we are waiting eagerly for the corresponding STIKO recommendation.

Why is the recommendation so important to you?

Parents have already asked that politicians should finally act and not wait any longer, but allow vaccinations for younger children.