RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Should children be vaccinated against COVID-19?
JF Archives of Disease in Childhood
JO Arch Dis Child
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
SP archdischild-2021-323040
DO 10.1136/archdischild-2021-323040
A1 Petra Zimmermann
A1 Laure F Pittet
A1 Adam Finn
A1 Andrew J Pollard
A1 Nigel Curtis
YR 2021
UL http://adc.bmj.com/content/early/2021/11/01/archdischild-2021-323040.abstract
AB Whether all children under 12 years of age should be vaccinated against COVID-19 remains an ongoing debate. The relatively low risk posed by acute COVID-19 in children, and uncertainty about the relative harms from vaccination and disease mean that the balance of risk and benefit of vaccination in this age group is more complex. One of the key arguments for vaccinating healthy children is to protect them from long-term consequences. Other considerations include population-level factors, such as reducing community transmission, vaccine supply, cost, and the avoidance of quarantine, school closures and other lockdown measures. The emergence of new variants of concern necessitates continual re-evaluation of the risks and benefits. In this review, we do not argue for or against vaccinating children against COVID-19 but rather outline the points to consider and highlight the complexity of policy decisions on COVID-19 vaccination in this age group.No data are available.