Many of the decisions of this pandemic need transparent, free and in-depth discussions. We should discuss infant vaccination against COVID-19, as the work on this Seminar on Innovation in Primary Care (SIAP) and the Spanish Network of Primary Care (REAP) have made clear.
The disease of SARS-Cov2 in children is generally mild and time-limited, often asymptomatic. Regulatory agencies that have authorised these vaccines for use in an emergency state say that COVID-19 vaccines administered in Europe to children older than 5 years are safe. We do not know what the medium- and long-term safety of these vaccines is. We need time and quality records to know the possible side effects. An example of this is the increase in cases of myocarditis/pericarditis following these vaccines in the young population. Although most cases are mild and infrequent, the British Vaccination and Immunization Commission (JCVI) highlighted in its September statement to take into account possible future consequences.
On the other hand, what scientific and ethical basis does the vaccination of children have to “obtain group immunity”? Unfortunately, vaccines against the current COVID-19 do not prevent the transmission of the virus adequately, as science and the current broad community transmission have made clear. In this transmission, the role of children in the pandemic has been lower than that of adults. Many children have already passed the disease, as the estimates of many peoples say. We need a child seroprevalence study (as indicated by doctor Juan Simó). And what will investigate cellular immunity.
"Basing the decision to vaccinate children on the advantage it would have in the older age group (even if it doesn't seem so) is highly questionable. And children's natural immunity could help in the leap to endemic."
In a sample of children aged 4 to 11 years in Britain, 60% of seronegatives (negative in antibody tests) had a potent cellular immunity (Act 32 JCVI).
Although the antibodies after the disease were negative at that time, they had the sign of having passed the disease, immunity to the virus. Why a vaccine?
Norway does not offer a vaccine to children 12 to 15 years of age who have passed the disease.
On 25 November the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the emergency authorisation for the Comirnaty vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years. At the moment, healthy children between the ages of 5 and 11 will not be vaccinated in Finland and Norway. They indicate that they need more information on safety.
By vaccinating children against COVID-19, we could open the door to a possible risk that is not clearly compensated. Ethically, basing the decision to vaccinate children on the advantage they would have in the age group, even if it does not seem so, is very questionable. And children's natural immunity could contribute to the leap into endemic.
Too often we have heard in this pandemic that children are hyper-polluting. If at first this type of claim lacked scientific basis, today they are opposed to all scientific evidence. Recently, in our environment, children have been the leaders in incidence, while in positivity they have been the opposite. Proportionally, have we done more tests on children than on other ages? The positivity of children (0-19 years) is much lower than the general one. It would not be children the “deposit” of the virus, nor those who are spreading it mainly (Children lead the incidence but not the positivity, does anyone worry about this? ).
The intrinsic needs of children have not been taken into account in this pandemic. We have explained things to minors without hearing them. Without asking them what they felt, we've passed on them and imposed adult norms. And all of these cuts have had and are having a tremendous impact not only on their mental health, but also on physical health, poverty and academia. The impact of the crisis caused by UNICEF COVID-19, among others, as discussed in the report on the most vulnerable children.
From now on, the measures we are going to take on children must be adapted to their peculiarities and needs, based on science. We should not cause more harm to children than we want to avoid. The natural immunity they develop after the passage of the SARS-Cov2 virus is probably also important in adulthood, as is the immunity created to defend against the virus after suffering infections caused by other coronaviruses in childhood. Because natural immunity developed in childhood is essential to defend itself from gravity if in adulthood the same viruses are infected. Primum non nocere.