The anticovid vaccination for children between the ages of five and 11 began this Monday in many health centers in our country. Official figures from the National Population Council (Conapo) indicate that in 2019 almost 15 million children between the ages of five and 12 were counted. So far – indicates the Undersecretary of Health – 3 million children have been registered to receive the vaccine against Covid-19. What about the other 12 million children who have not registered?
The possible explanations are the following: 1) in many localities, parents do not have access to digital channels to be able to register them, 2) some children may have already been immunized due to cross-border programs in the northern states, 3) some others, a few, were able to travel to another country (mainly the United States) to receive the vaccine and 4) due to fear or ignorance of the parents of these children about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and, unfortunately, this is partly the result of the unfortunate statements previously made by our Secretary of Health, who questioned the safety of vaccines.
But what does the United States report, a country where vaccination of this age group began in November of last year? The vaccine has been applied with its complete schedule in 8.7 million children, according to the morbidity and mortality report dated December 31, 2021 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The expected post-vaccination effects were mostly local, such as pain at the injection site, followed by tiredness and headache; discomforts that were mild and lasted from 24 to 72 hours. Fever was reported in 13.6% of children, most often after the second dose.
Among the serious adverse effects, according to the vaccine adverse event reporting system (VAERS), there were 12 cases of febrile seizures, without subsequent neurological repercussions, and 11 cases of myocarditis out of the 8.7 million doses administered, which were They recovered without sequelae. No deaths associated with vaccination. As we can see in these data, the vaccine has a lower incidence of adverse effects than those reported in the group of adolescents and adults, this is largely due to the fact that the dose administered is one third of that applied in the previous group.
The data analyzed by the CDC comparing the hospitalizations of children for Covid-19 with the vaccination status among children aged five and 11 in the period from June 2021 to March 2022 reveals that the range of hospitalization among those unvaccinated is much higher (12 /100,000 vs 5/100,000) than in the vaccinated. If you think that only children with previous illnesses were hospitalized, the answer is NO, up to 51% of children were previously healthy.
Should I vaccinate my children if they have previously had covid? The answer is yes. It has been proven that reinfection occurs more frequently in those who had previously been infected and had not been vaccinated compared to those infected and vaccinated.
Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent hospitalization and death in any age group. The vaccine is safe, it is effective and it is the key to protecting our children. For them, the wait has been long, and their sacrifice and discipline has been much greater than in the rest of the population.
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