The High Authority for Health proposes in particular “to prioritize the vaccination of secondary school pupils” under 12 years old.
The High Authority of Health gives the green light to the generalization of the vaccination of children. In an opinion delivered on Monday, the body proposes “that parents who wish to be able to vaccinate their child (ren) aged 5 to 11 years from the availability of the doses in pediatric formulation“. For this she proposes “prioritize the vaccination of middle school students (under 12 years old, whose characteristics are similar to those of other middle school students) in order to quickly complete the vaccination campaign for children aged 12 and over“.
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The High Authority further indicates that injections must be preceded “by performing a serological TROD (in the absence of a known and documented history of Covid-19) in order to limit the administration of the vaccine to a single dose in the event of a positive test.»The time between the two doses of vaccine should be spaced 21 days apart.
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Positive risk / benefit balance
Lise Alter, HAS expert, recalled during a press conference that the benefit / risk balance remains positive for children, because if “severe forms of Covid-19 rarely affect them“,”80% of severe forms are found in children without comorbidity“. Gold “with the arrival of Omicron (more contagious, Editor’s note), we can expect an increase in severe forms in children“. According to clinical trials conducted by the Pfizer laboratory, the vaccine efficacy in children aged 5 to 11 years of the vaccine is of the order of 90% against symptomatic forms of the disease, she further added. recalled.
Regarding the possible adverse effects of the vaccine, to reach its conclusions, the HAS studied pharmacovigilance data on more than 10 million children under the age of 14 vaccinated worldwide, including more than 7 million in the United States. in children under 12 years of age. These data are according to her “still limited but reassuring in the short term“, with “around 30 serious adverse events»Including 3 neurological accidents such as stroke, 2 myocarditis, 1 anaphylactic reaction, 1 cardiopulmonary arrest and 1 death. “These data also concern children with co-morbidities“ however specifies Lise Alter, and this case of death is “Soccurred in very specific circumstances“, in a child “with very serious illnesses“.
Whereas the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE) gave a favorable opinion on Friday for this age group, vaccination should therefore start on Wednesday afternoon “if all goes well“, Declared the Minister of Health last weekend on France Inter. “The Steering Committee for the vaccination strategy of Prof. [Alain] Fischer will deliver his conclusions on the morning of December 22, after consulting real-life US data based on the booster vaccination of two million US children, which will allow us to have all the information, to communicate it transparently, and reassure», Added Olivier Véran.