Twelve countries in the region have already started vaccinating minors against COVID-19 | International | News

Adolescents with comorbidities were the first. Immunization of children may still be delayed as key issues such as number of doses need to be defined.

Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Peru and Uruguay are the countries in the region that are already vaccinating their 12 to 17-year-old population against COVID-19, mostly with the Pfizer drug.

This population group did not enter the immunization of the adult and risk population that has been vaccinated during this year due to the lack of final results of clinical studies of vaccines in minors.

Pfizer’s drug, now called Comirnaty, is so far the only one who has received authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in minors in May.

Dr. Ricardo Morales, specialist in pediatrics and director of the postgraduate program of this branch at the International University of Ecuador, says that “adolescents (12-18 years) are one of the groups that have been shown to have the highest prevalence of complications and that it is It is important that they have been included in the vaccination ”.

The first countries to begin vaccinating minors were Uruguay and Chile.

Uruguay began on June 9, and the total population of minors is estimated at 290,000 children. Chile did so on the 22nd of that same month. Both countries use Pfizer’s vaccine for immunization, he says CNN.

At the beginning of July, Colombia added minors between 12 and 15 years of age to its National Vaccination Plan against COVID-19. Already in the middle of that month Peru began to immunize with Pfizer first minors between 12 and 17 years old with cancer. There is still no clear date of when they will begin to vaccinate minors without previous illnesses.

In the last days of July, El Salvador also announced that they were beginning vaccination for those over 12 years of age. On those same days, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, Panama and the Dominican Republic began to apply the Pfizer vaccine to minors with pre-existing diseases and in recent days they have already announced that it will be for minors in general.

Argentina did it a little later also to minors between 12 and 17 years old with comorbidities, but unlike the rest of the countries in the region, it did so with the Moderna vaccine.

Cuba will start the process this month with their Sovereign and Abdala vaccines, according to the state Cuba Portal.

However, worldwide there is still no estimated date for the start of vaccination in children under 12 years of age.

Morales says that “fortunately children have shown that they are not so susceptible to having a serious picture of the virus or that they need, in great majority, intensive therapy or hospitalization.” However, he mentions that this is not general and that is why it is important that they have access to vaccination.

The specialist emphasizes that for the moment they are still only in the testing phase on all the Pfizer vaccine and that an authorization of vaccines for infants “may take a considerable time.”

Morales explains that the studies have been done by groups, under one year of age, under 5 years old and from 5 to 11 years old to define what the doses will be like and they hope that the FDA will rule for a full approval in December 2021 o January 2022.

In addition to Comirnaty, the specialist tells that another vaccine that currently is already advanced for minors is that of Chinese origin Sinovac.

“Sinovac can be given from 3 to 17 years, but in China vaccination has not yet begun and it is not yet approved by organisms such as the World Health Organization (WHO),” he refers and comments that other vaccines that are also advancing little by little in tests with minors are those of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

Morales mentions that it must be understood that it is not the same to give an adult dose to a child and that doses that are effective and that do not cause a large number of adverse effects are being tested. He also adds that in the US the authorizations are too strict, but it must be recognized that this will not be as before, when approval took decades.

“These vaccines are in preliminary studies, remember that they must complete phase 1, phase 2 and phase 3 especially to see the dose, safety, efficacy and in terms of children … they are carried out by age and weight groups, not it is a standard vaccine as in the case of adults ”, emphasizes Morales.

According to preliminary studies mentioned by the specialist, it is analyzed that children under 5 years of age receive two doses of 3 micrograms, the tenth part of an adult; and children under 11 years old receive a 10 microgram dose.

Meanwhile, countries such as Mexico and Brazil, which have approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine for minors, still do not apply them.

In the case of Mexico, experts say that at least this year the country will not have vaccines for children and emphasize that, although to a lesser extent than adults, minors do suffer from the virus, local media collect.

For their part, in Brazil the authorities have clarified that the priority should be to complete the vaccination of the entire adult population with at least one dose and have asked state and municipal governments to take advantage of this indication.

Vaccination is considered key to reducing hospitalizations and serious cases and also in these moments where the educational system is being sought to be face-to-face again, since some countries have resumed face-to-face classes or have opted for a modality that includes virtual and the face-to-face. (I)

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