Vaccinating children against COVID not priority from WHO perspective

Source: The Indian Express

The World Health Organization’s top vaccines professional says that immunizing children against the coronavirus “is not a high priority” given the extremely limited global supply of vaccines.

Dr Kate O’Brien says vaccinating children “is not a urgency from a WHO perspective”, even as increasing numbers of rich countries approve their COVID-19 shots for teenagers and children.
O’Brien says since children are not naturally at risk of getting severely ill or dying from COVID-19, vaccinating them during the pandemic is mostly aimed at stopping spread, rather than protecting them from disease.

Canada, the US and the European Union have all recently approved some COVID-19 vaccines for children age 12 to 15 as they approach their vaccination targets for adults.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has previously advised rich countries to donate their COVID-19 shots to poor countries rather than immunize their adolescents and children. Fewer than 1% of COVID-19 vaccines administered globally have been used in poor countries.

O’Brien says it’s not necessary to vaccinate children before sending them back to school if the adults in contact with them were immunized.

Also read: Taking care of children with Covid-19