The vaccination of children between 5 and 11 years old will start on December 15. This was agreed yesterday the Public Health Commission, whose recommendation was expected. According to Carolina Darias, which yesterday was in Brussels at a meeting with the rest of European health ministers, the autonomous communities will be responsible for deciding the concrete modality for the administration of vaccines, choosing between health centers, vaccination centers Massive or school centers.
Spain will receive 1.3 million children's vaccines in December and another 2 million vaccines in January to vaccinate the 3.3 million children in our country in the fringe of 5 to 11 years. 40% of the expected doses would, therefore, in mid-December. And 60% already in 2022, in January.
Children will receive the Comirnaty children's vaccine (from Pfizer), a product that will be dispensed in vials other than those used for the adult population.
Regarding the second dose, the Public Health Commission "At the request of the vaccine paper, decided that the administration interval of the second dose be 8 weeks, to contribute to increase the immune response, as well as to have all vaccinated Minors between 5 and 11 years old in a short space of time with at least one dose, "said the Ministry of Health yesterday.
Initially, he was scheduled for the vaccination campaign to begin next day 13, as he announced Minister Carolina Darias last week after the Interiorritorial Health Council held in Córdoba, although the first vaccines will finally be received on day and the campaign It will formally begin on day 15 as agreed at yesterday's meeting.
The approval of Vaccination against Covid in children from 5 to 11 years old in Spain was, for many, a very expected ad since November 25, the European Medicine Agency (EMA) recommended publicly This indication of immunization in the little ones. «It is important to vaccinate them. Children are a fundamental part of society. Protecting them to them is to protect everyone, "said yesterday, after knowing the decision of healing, Manuel Franco, professor at the University of Alcalá and spokesman for the Spanish Society of Public Health (SESPAS), reports Laura Tardón.
"As we have always said, with the Delta Variant, to achieve group immunity, we must exceed 90% of the vaccinated population and this is precisely the vaccination of minors," Joan Caylà coincided, a member of the Spanish Epidemiology Society ( See) and President of the Foundation of the Tuberculosis Research Unit of Barcelona.
The coordinator of the Vaccine Advisory Committee of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (CAV-AEP), Francisco Álvarez, assessed positively the public health decision to vaccinate children from 5 to 11 years after December 15. Once there is "a preventive and safe method, it is ridiculous to take risks," reports EFE. Álvarez noted that with the "good data" obtained from clinical trials, it was difficult for the Commission Public Health, assembled on Tuesday, made a decision in another sense, and recalled that now the clinical trials of children under 5 years of age remain pending "They are underway but not finished."
For Amos García-Rojas, president of the Spanish Association of Vaccunology, "The decision made by the Public Health Commission is in accordance with the document prepared by the presentation of vaccines, which understands that in this scenario of the pandemic, with a high Presence of cases in the age group between 5 and 11 years, it seems reasonable to begin implementing childhood vaccination. Somehow the weight of the pandemic is advised ».
Vaccination in children, the experts consulted, should be done "in an orderly manner, as we have done in adult vaccination. That is, first, the most vulnerable children, who have previous conditions, which will be very little, and following the children living with older or vulnerable people. It would have to be done from higher at a lower risk. "
Although the Covid has proven not to be a disease that causes serious illness in most children, with the immunization of the smallest not only anecdotal cases of complications will be avoided, but the Community transmission, in such a way that it can be viable. Control of the pandemic and normalization of life in all age groups.
Public health experts and pediatrics remembered, however, that we are facing a global pandemic, so it is a priority to move in vaccination at all points on the planet, prioritizing vulnerable people. In many places, immunization rates remain tiny, regretted.
Autonomous Communities such as Castilla y León demanded from last week to know in more detail the cadence with which vaccines will arrive to be able to schedule the reserve of second doses and decide with more certainty whether it is worth a massive vaccination in specific vaccination centers or if, by The lower availability of vaccines, the best strategy would be a stepped in school centers.
Autonomies like Galicia have advanced as they will vaccinate minors in mass vaccination centers as soon as they begin to receive children's vaccines, which will be distributed to the autonomies proportional to the number of children to be vaccinated. Madrid, who warned last week that the 150,000 vaccines he will receive from day 13 will not be enough for all his childhood population either does not plan to vaccinate in schools but in hospitals and open the autocita process from day 15.
Communities such as Murcia, Asturias or Catalonia have also discarded vaccination in schools and, in the absence of specifying technical details, they are inclined by massive vaccination centers and hospitals. Others such as Andalusia, which had initially shuffled vaccinating in schools, already announced their intention to eventually do it in health centers before the proximity of the Christmas dates, the closure of schools and the possibility of taking advantage of the healthcare device already deployed for influenza .
According to the Ministry of Health, the decision to vaccinate children over 5 years, aims to reduce the burden of disease of this group ", as long as children under 12 are the population group with the highest accumulated incidence of COVID cases.
But vaccination in children will also be intended to stop "the transmission in the family environment, in the educational centers and in the community." In this regard, the Public Health Commission highlighted "the importance of protecting minors from these ages not only from the disease in its acute facet, but also before possible affections in the future and against persistent Covid syndrome."
Date Of Update: 07 December 2021, 21:04
