Covid-19 in France: towards the vaccination of 5-11 year olds

Vaccination in Nantes, western France, September 14, 2021 (Illustrative image).

© Stephane Mahe / reuters

Text by: Marie Casadebaig Follow

2 min

As the government prepares to announce new measures to fight Covid-19 as the holiday season approaches, the country could soon have its children aged 5 to 11 vaccinated.

The National Ethics Advisory Committee has given the green light.

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It is a first step in a validation process.

Other bodies have yet to decide, before the government decides to extend vaccination to all children from 5 to 11 years old.

He undertook to follow these different opinions.  

Since Wednesday, only children of this age group with co-morbidities, or those close to immunocompromised people, therefore extremely at risk,

.   

 Other opinions expected

For others to have access to it, the High Authority for Health must also give the green light.

It will then be the turn of the Vaccine Strategy Orientation Council.

A priori, the latter will be able to pronounce itself in the middle of next week.

The body is still awaiting data on side effects in the United States where vaccination of 5-11 year olds is already underway.  

A non-compulsory vaccination  

One thing is already certain, the vaccination of the little ones will not be compulsory.

Emmanuel Macron, the President of the Republic, has already spoken on this point.

Parents will be able to choose freely.

Children will therefore not be subject to a health pass.

In his interview with the private channel TF1 on Wednesday, the Head of State did not rule out the possibility of eventually making the vaccination against Covid-19, compulsory at all ages. 

►Also read: Macron on TF1: vaccination of children "desirable" but not mandatory

For now, the government must face the reluctance of the French.

In a very recent poll, only 51% of those polled said they were in favor of vaccinating 5-11 year olds, but 7 in 10 parents were opposed to having their child vaccinated.

And half fiercely.  

Individual and collective benefits

The National Consultative Ethics Committee is also opposed to making the vaccine compulsory for this population.

CCNE is also against an incentive campaign.

It advocates objective communication based on factual data, which accepts the share of uncertainty in terms of individual and collective benefit.  

The committee chose to give a positive opinion for individual benefit, because serious forms, even if they are rare, exist in children.

119 children under 10 are currently hospitalized, including 27 in critical care.  

Those in favor of collective benefit stress that children have become the main vectors of the disease, in a population that is mainly vaccinated.

At school as elsewhere, they are not subject to any social restriction and obligation to respect barrier gestures, such as wearing a mask.

By way of comparison, Great Britain has been vaccinating its children, from 2 years old, against the flu since 2017.

Because she noticed that they often transmitted the disease to their parents, and especially to the grandparents.  

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• France

• Coronavirus

• Vaccines