COVID vaccines are not needed for healthy kids and teens, says World Health Organization
Healthy youngsters and teenagers probably don’t want COVID-19 vaccinations, in response to up to date steering posted on the web site of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday.
WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) met final week to create a revised roadmap for COVID vaccinations.
The new roadmap defines three precedence teams — excessive, medium and low — primarily based on the “risk of severe disease and death” when contracting the virus.
Healthy kids between 6 months and 17 years outdated are now deemed low precedence.
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The company mentioned that for this group, “traditional essential vaccines” for sicknesses like rotavirus, measles, polio and pneumococcal conjugate have a higher impression.
In the brand new roadmap, the company additionally launched up to date steering on COVID booster doses.
Healthy youngsters and teenagers probably don’t want COVID-19 vaccinations, in response to up to date steering posted on the World Health Organization’s web site on Tuesday. (iStock)
“Updated to reflect that much of the population is either vaccinated or previously infected with COVID-19, or both, the revised roadmap reemphasizes the importance of vaccinating those still at-risk of severe disease, mostly older adults and those with underlying conditions, including with additional boosters,” acknowledged SAGE Chair Dr. Hanna Nohynek in a press launch on the WHO web site.
Children who’ve compromised immune programs or present well being situations ought to nonetheless get the vaccine.
“Countries should consider their specific context in deciding whether to continue vaccinating low-risk groups, like healthy children and adolescents, while not compromising the routine vaccines that are so crucial for the health and well-being of this age group,” the physician continued.
WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) met final week to create a revised roadmap for COVID vaccinations. (Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket through Getty Images)
In the press launch, SAGE encourages nations to think about elements together with “disease burden, cost-effectiveness, and other health or programmatic priorities and opportunity costs” when making choices about vaccine necessities for healthy youngsters and teenagers.
Some youngsters ought to nonetheless get vaccine, WHO says
Children who’ve compromised immune programs or present well being situations ought to nonetheless get the COVID vaccine as a result of greater danger of extreme illness, the company mentioned.
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Additionally, it’s really helpful that infants beneath 6 months ought to obtain the vaccine on account of burden of extreme COVID-19 results.
The steering additionally calls for pregnant girls to be absolutely vaccinated for full safety of the mom and fetus.
Healthy kids between 6 months and 17 years outdated are now deemed “low priority” for COVID vaccines, WHO says. (iStock)
Dr. Marc Siegel, medical professor of drugs at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, agreed that youngsters and teenagers are decrease precedence for this vaccine until they’ve weight problems or different persistent sicknesses or are particularly in danger.
“The vaccine you had two or more years ago may have almost completely worn off by now.”
“However, this change in prioritization is not the same thing as saying that they shouldn’t have the COVID vaccines,” he informed Fox News Digital.
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“The question that has emerged recently is how many COVID shots is enough,” Dr. Siegel continued.
“The difficulty with universities mandating it is that the vaccine you had two or more years ago may have almost completely worn off by now.”
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“Natural immunity following infection must be included in counting immune protection, as well as the amount of COVID still around,” he added.
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Additionally, vaccination has lately been proven to lower dangers of lengthy COVID signs in all ages, Dr. Siegel identified.
“This means vaccine remains a valuable tool,” he mentioned.
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched just a few updates to its baby and adolescent immunization schedule, together with the addition of COVID-19 vaccines.
