Will France follow in the footsteps of the United States on anti-Covid-19 vaccination for 5-11 year olds? While the White House has just announced that it was “ready” to vaccinate this population in November – subject to the green light from the health authorities – is such a campaign current in France? 20 minutes takes stock of the interest of such a strategy and the different stages of this process.
Has vaccination really proven its effectiveness over 5-11 year olds?
If the vaccination of minors 12-17 years old has been possible since this summer in France, the question of administering the anti-Covid vaccine to children between 5 and 11 years old arose at the end of September, after the publication of a study by Pfizer / BioNtech on the subject.
While the latter judged the vaccine to be “safe” and “well tolerated”, praising the “robust” immune response of this population of 4,500 children between 6 months and 11 years old from different countries (and 2,268 between 5 and 11 years old), questions are still being asked about the benefit / risk balance, as the infectious disease specialist Odile Launay recently pointed out
from Franceinfo.
“We have data in terms of immune responses, they announce that vaccines are well tolerated, in a way comparable to what can be observed in adolescents, but we must remain cautious. We have not read these results and they included in these trials 2,000 children, which is low to be sure that we will not have adverse effects, ”explained the specialist.
Is vaccination really useful in this population?
Why vaccinate children against Covid-19 when they rarely contract a severe form of the disease? The interest of the strategy adopted by the United States echoes the argument put forward by the Department of Health about the vaccination of adolescents from 12 to 17 years old.
“If young people more rarely develop serious forms [du] Covid-19, their vaccination is necessary to limit the risk of transmission of the virus and essential to achieve collective immunity as quickly as possible “, he explains on his site.
On this point, Odile Launay specified to Franceinfo the concrete advantages of a potential vaccination of 5-11 year olds: “If we have enough elements and we can vaccinate without putting children at risk, it can be a benefit. and allow schools and classes to be left open. But it’s all a matter of risk. We must have as much data as possible before committing to a vaccination of this type. “
When could the vaccination of 5-11 year olds begin in France?
Assuming that the government decides to vaccinate this category of the population, it would have to wait at least several months. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) indeed announced, on October 18, that it launched an evaluation of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine on this subject.
“We will study the data relating to the vaccine, including an ongoing clinical study in children aged 5 to 11, to decide whether we recommend expanding the use of the vaccine,” the EMA said in its statement. Its opinion will then be sent to the European Commission, which will decide whether or not to authorize it at European level.
In the event of a green light, each Member State will then be free to deploy the vaccine to this age group. It remains to be seen whether France would opt for this option, the Director General of Health, Jérôme Salomon, having affirmed at the beginning of September that it was not topical, “because we lack scientific data. [et] that studies are in progress ”but that the government would adapt“ to the evolution of scientific knowledge ”.