The pediatric vaccine against coronavirus is safe and protects school presence

Infectologists from the Argentine Society of Pediatrics (SAP) pointed out that the Moderna laboratory’s coronavirus vaccine for the population from six months of life “is safe” and “contributes to reducing the circulation of the virus”, which “protects socialization in general and attendance at school”.

“I consider that the possibility of vaccinating children from six months to three years of age is very good news, since they were the ones that we still could not protect,” Omar Tabacco told Télam.infectious disease doctor and former president of the SAP.

The specialist highlighted the importance of vaccination “in the entire pediatric range” for three reasons: it contributes to the protection of children, it increases herd immunity since it decreases the circulation of the virus and the possible appearance of new variants, and “it is a way to promote and protect socialization in general and school attendance in particular”.

In addition to babies from six months and up to two years, 11 months and 29 days who will be given the primary two-dose schedule, the campaign includes a booster application for three and four-year-olds who have previously received the scheme from the Sinopharm laboratory.

The vaccine contributes to prevention since, as there is a larger population vaccinated, we give the virus less chance to circulate, we prevent children from getting sick

Tabacco assured that the dose produced by the Moderna laboratory “is approved by the vaccination entities: the Anmat (National Administration of Medicines, Food and Medical Technology) in Argentina, and the FDA (Food and Medicines Administration) in the United States, which assessed the efficacy and safety of the immunizer. It is important to transmit this to parents,” he insisted.

“With vaccination we have managed to control the worst face of the pandemic, which today is part of one more seasonal virus; there may be new cases but without this in any way being transferred to a significant rate of hospitalization or death,” the specialist continued. .

And he added that this situation “is what we ask of the vaccines, which protect us from the most serious forms of the disease.”

For her part, pediatric infectologist Elizabeth Bogdanowicz said that “although the virus is less serious in the pediatric population, it is still a disease that can become relevant.”

And added that it is described “That children under one year of age can have significant disease and can also cause complications of what is called prolonged Covid or post-Covid syndrome.”

“The vaccine helps not only to reduce the impact that (the virus) can have on the circulation of the community,” but also to “take care of the health of the little ones,” he added.

As for post-vaccination symptoms, he indicated that pain and itching sensation at the application site, fever, weakness and swollen glands may occur.

“All vaccines can have secondary reactions, even those on the schedule, and for that reason we do not stop applying them,” he said, detailing that “experience has shown that vaccines are very safe.”

In parallel, the infectologist and clinical researcher Ana Ceballos -a member of the SAP of the province of Córdoba- stressed to Télam the importance of vaccination since “although they do not have risk factors, children can become infected, get severely ill and have sequelae” .

Thus, the vaccine contributes to prevention since having “a larger population vaccinated, we give the virus less chance to circulate, we prevent children from getting sick and infecting those who were not vaccinated”.

In turn, he specified that the dose of Moderna “is a messenger RNA vaccine that generates a very good immune response” and specified that it was produced by a company “expert in the development of vaccines.”

The specialist also dispelled doubts about the adverse effects, stating that the doses “do not reach the market without previous studies, which in this case were carried out in Canada and the United States following different phases” and said that “the effects are never stopped secondary in investigations.

Moderna’s vaccines will also be inoculated as a booster for the three- and four-year-old population who have completed their Sinopharm two-dose schedule.

The Moderna vaccine schedule is applied with two doses for girls and boys from six months to two years, 11 months and 29 days, with an interval of four weeks between them.

The only difference that the vaccine has for the younger age group “is that the formulation has fewer milligrams than the one used in those over 12 years of age,” Ceballos said.

Moderna’s vaccines will also be inoculated as a booster for the three- and four-year-old population who have completed their Sinopharm two-dose schedule, 120 days after the last one.

On the other hand, for immunocompromised infants and children “an additional dose is recommended at 28 days, but this is already with medical indication,” specified the infectologist, who stressed that the other vaccines on the national calendar “may be co-administered together with the Modern”.

In this regard, he added that “there is no time interval between doses of different vaccines.”

Finally, The specialist maintained that studies in adults of the vaccine “have shown its efficacy in antibody levels and that they do not generate, in most cases, severe side effects”which is why he called for “continuing to vaccinate to increase the epidemiological barrier.”

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