This is a first since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic in France. Health authorities on Monday recommended an anti-Covid vaccine, that of Pfizer / BioNTech, for certain babies under four years old. Unlike the United States, the entire age group is not affected by this recommendation.
The High Authority for Health (HAS) “recommends extending vaccination against Covid-19 as of today to children aged 6 months to 4 years old at risk of a serious form of the disease and death”, announces t she in a statement. This includes “children who have any of these comorbidities: congenital heart disease, chronic liver disease, chronic heart and respiratory disease – including severe asthma requiring ongoing treatment, neurological disease, primary or drugs, obesity, diabetes, hematological malignancies, sickle cell disease and trisomy 21”, lists the HAS. Added to this are cases of “recent cancer, chronic kidney disease or neurological disability”. Finally, vaccination is also recommended for babies whose entourage is at risk of a severe form of Covid-19.
The opinions of the HAS are theoretically advisory, but the Ministry of Health follows them almost systematically. The recommendation of the French health authorities is however much tighter than the advice given by their European counterparts a few weeks ago. They had recommended the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for all babies aged six months to four years, judging that the benefits outweighed the risks. They had also recommended another vaccine, that of Moderna, for all babies from six months to five years. This opinion is part of a context where very few French children are vaccinated against Covid-19, while vaccination has been open to at least twelve years since the end of 2021.