So far, Israel has vaccinated around 600 children aged 12 to 16 in risk groups for coronavirus with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and has not seen significant side effects from the injection, a senior health official said in an interview on Wednesday .
“So far, we have immunized some 600 children,” Dr. Boaz Lev, one of the key members of the Ministry of Health’s advisory team, told the office, the Guardian. “We didn’t see any major side effects; even the smallest ones are quite rare. This is encouraging. ”
Lev also said that the ministry would need to launch a public relations campaign on the safety of the vaccine if the immunization was approved for children. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that children will start receiving vaccines, but did not specify a deadline.
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“At this point, it is very difficult to see what will happen in this regard,” said Lev.
Dr. Boaz Lev in a discussion at the Knesset on May 25, 2010 (Abir Sultan / Flash 90)
Pfizer recently enrolled more than 2,000 children aged 12 to 15 for clinical trials and expects to see results within a few months. The drugmaker is expected to seek an emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for this age group in the first half of this year.
The vaccine currently has emergency approval for use in people aged 16 and over.
Israeli children who were approved by the medical authorities for vaccination had known risk factors, including obesity, diabetes, severe lung and heart disease, immunosuppression disorders and cancer, according to a report last month.
The Ministry of Health recommended vaccinating some adolescents aged 12 to 15 against COVID-19 if they suffer from specific underlying diseases. The report did not say whether all children vaccinated in Israel were older than 12 years.
Infection among children and the reopening of schools have been a central concern during the outbreak of the third wave virus in Israel. Children represent a higher proportion of infections than at the beginning of the pandemic, possibly due to new variants of the virus and the fact that a significant percentage of adults have been vaccinated.
Israeli students wearing masks when they return to school in Aseret, February 11, 2021. (Flash90)
Moderna also started testing for children as young as 12, but says it is unlikely that there will be data on younger children by 2022. The University of Oxford has announced a test to test its AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on children as young as 6 years old.
On Wednesday, more than 5 million Israelis received a dose of the coronavirus vaccine and more than 3.9 million received both vaccines. Netanyahu predicted on Monday that by the end of April the entire population over 16 will be vaccinated. The total population of Israel is about 9.3 million.
