From our correspondent in the United States,
To vaccinate or not to vaccinate your child. Many parents are asking the question in France, while the vaccination campaign was extended to 5-11 years old on Wednesday. With almost two months in advance, the United States has more hindsight: six million children have already received at least one injection, or one in four in this age group. But after the battle in early November to secure a date, the pace is slowing, with nearly two-thirds of parents reluctant or hesitant, much to Joe Biden’s chagrin.
In the midst of a wave of the Omicron variant, faced with the rise in infections – and hospitalizations in pediatric wards in some states – the US president pleaded with his fellow citizens on Tuesday: “Please, if it hasn’t already been done. , get your children vaccinated. To protect them and protect others. “
Pressure from friends
Emilie and Gabriel
, a couple of French expats living in Silicon Valley, did not rush in early November to have their eldest daughter, aged 8, vaccinated. “We didn’t hesitate much, we just let the first wave of meetings pass,” says Emilie. Who nevertheless “felt obliged to justify the fact of not jumping on the opportunity in the second. Our three closest pairs of friends would send us links as soon as new places were available. ” Too young to be eligible, their son will celebrate his 5th birthday in February. “We told him that his birthday present would be a first vaccine,” smiles his mother. In the meantime, for theplaydates
, it is “compulsory wearing of the mask indoors unless there has been a recent negative test” of all the children before. It is optional outdoors, but “it is he who asks for the mask most often”.
Parents WhatsApp groups Ségolène and Mike They wanted more data before deciding, “especially with the risk of symptoms related to Covid lower in young people”. “We waited to vaccinate our big one because we saw the risk of myocarditis in boys aged 12-17. Especially among the elderly, but we were not completely reassured, ”explains Ségolène. She was eventually convinced by a virtual conferencefrom the University of California at San Francisco. According to the latest figures from the CDC, the US health agency, only eight cases of inflammation of the heart muscle have been observed in 5-11 year olds out of 6 million injections of the Pfizer vaccine, with “mild symptoms” being successfully treated with l ‘hospital. The rate is higher in boys aged 16-17 (69 cases per million, which remains very rare) for a still poorly understood reason which could, according to scientists,
be linked to testosterone
.
Ségolène persuaded her American husband that it was “in the interest of the children and the community to vaccinate” their 8-year-old son and their daughter, ten days after her 5th birthday. In an elitist establishment, the couple was also the victim of “social pressure at school”. “Parents would report their child’s vaccine date to each class’s WhatsApp groups. Everyone around us has capitulated, ”concludes Ségolène.
Slowing down of vaccinations
These couples from the San Francisco area are far from representative of the situation in the United States. After the November rush, the pace of children’s vaccinations has now been reduced by three. Only 22% of the 28 million 5-11 year olds have received an injection, and 13% are fully immunized. According to a study by health giant Kaiser Permanente, parents are divided into three segments: about a third plan to have their child vaccinated as soon as possible, a third is hesitant, and a third categorically refuses. Like Connecticut Mom, who writes on Twitter, “My husband and I are vaccinated but I am not going to vaccinate my children for something that is unlikely to make them seriously ill. “Except that little risk doesn’t mean no risk. The Academy of American Pediatricians sounded the alarm this week: cases of Covid-19 in children are currently “extremely high”, with 170,000 infections recorded last week, up 28% over two weeks. Since July, in the United States, with an adult population vaccinated at 72%, children represent nearly a quarter of infections. And more infections mean more hospitalizations. Rainbow Babies Children’s Hospital in Cleveland Ohio
welcome c Every day between 10 and 15 times more young patients infected with Covid-19 than last summer. Fatally, the number of deaths – for the moment limited to 790 victims under the age of 18 since the start of the pandemic – may increase. The Covid-19 is now
the 6th cause of death among those under 14.
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First names have been changed