The Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) wants to recommend the corona vaccination to children aged five to eleven with previous illnesses and contact with high-risk patients. But also healthy children should be able to be vaccinated on request and after medical advice, the panel of experts announced on Thursday about a draft resolution. It is not yet a final STIKO recommendation, a coordination process with specialist societies and countries is still ongoing. Changes are still possible.
"Although the 7-day incidence in this age group is very high, so it can be assumed that the majority of five to eleven year olds will be infected in the medium term without vaccination, most infections are asymptomatic," said the STIKO. Children in this age group with no previous illnesses would currently have a low risk of severe Covid-19, hospitalization and intensive care. In addition, the risk of rare side effects of vaccination cannot currently be assessed due to the limited data situation for this age group. For this reason, the STIKO “currently does not issue a general vaccination recommendation” for children with no previous illnesses at that age.
The STIKO continued to write that it “again and emphatically points out” that parents, teachers and educators as well as other people working in the care of children and young people “should urgently take advantage of the vaccination offer, including a booster”.
Special vaccine for children
The STIKO chairman Thomas Mertens justified the restricted vaccination recommendation for five to eleven year olds with missing data. "The data basis for a general recommendation is not given at the moment from the point of view of the STIKO," said the virologist of the German Press Agency. "Although there is no direct indication of a risk of vaccination in this age group, there is also no sufficiently reliable database to finally assess the safety." to exclude very rare side effects. “That is a problem we are facing,” said Mertens. There is no doubt about the effectiveness of the children's vaccine from the manufacturer Biontech / Pfizer.
"Even if the recommendation is formally only valid after the end of the commenting procedure next week, doctors can start vaccinating as soon as they have received the children's vaccine," Mertens clarified. “General practitioners can also vaccinate children, there are no longer any restrictions on specialist groups.” The STIKO boss emphasized the possibility of individual decisions for vaccination even with healthy children: “It is not the intention of the STIKO - and it never was - one to promote social dissent. We have therefore deliberately included a statement that the vaccination can also be possible if the parents or the children so wish. "
For five to eleven year olds, a lower-dose and differently bottled preparation is used compared to the conventional Biontech / Pfizer vaccine. According to STIKO, two doses of the mRNA vaccine should be given at intervals of three to six weeks. The delivery of this particular child vaccine was recently brought forward by a week to December 13th. The green light for approval in Europe was given at the end of November. If doctors have previously vaccinated younger children, they usually reduced the dose of the vaccine, which is approved for ages 12 and up, themselves - this falls under what is known as off-label use. The STIKO recommendation, however, only refers to the special children's vaccine.
The STIKO vaccination recommendations are considered the medical standard and are an important guideline for many doctors.
Depending on the level of knowledge, the committee has repeatedly adjusted its vaccination recommendations.
The vaccination for children from 12 years of age was initially only recommended for previous illnesses and was later extended to the entire age group.
STIKO decisions had sparked discussion and criticism on several issues relating to corona vaccinations; for example, the committee was accused of proceeding too hesitantly for pandemic conditions.