THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is a major decision-making time for parents as the state government is set to give Covid vaccine to children in the age group of 15-18 years, as part of the national policy, from January 3. The health experts themselves are still divided on giving Covid vaccine to children below 18 years. The differences arise from the risk-benefit assessment and the need to prevent further variants of concern.
The past experiences show that the Covid infection has been mild in children. But the emergence of new variants which are fast spreading also point to the need to cut the transmission chain of the virus which has caused the pandemic since 2020. These reasons were weighed in at the apex level of policy making as the government took time before giving limited nod, while several countries went ahead with vaccinating the children much earlier.
However, the knee-jerk decision without stating the clear objective behind vaccination has made parents apprehensive, according to health experts. The government has approved only Covaxin, a killed vaccine made by Bharat Biotech, for immunising children in the age group of 15-18 years. The country’s leading virologist, Dr T Jacob John, has vouched for the vaccine and asked the parents to go ahead with the vaccination.
“I am a strong advocate of vaccinating children from the age of two to 18. So, extending vaccination to those below 18 years is a decision in the right direction. A vaccine that is convincingly safe must be used. I think Covaxin fits the bill. It is a conventional killed virus vaccine. So, one expects it to be totally safe like the injectable polio vaccine,” said Dr John, former professor of clinical virology, CMC, Vellore.
“Children are not at a big risk of severity of Covid. Hence, the risk of vaccine should be less than the risk of disease. It also helps in preventing Multisystem Inflammatory Disorder in Children (MIS-C), a rare severity found in children due to Covid,” he added.
However, not all agree on the need to vaccinate children when the infection is considered to be mild in them. Dr Purushothaman Kuzhikkathukandiyil, professor of pediatrics at MES Medical College, Malappuram, said the rationale behind the vaccination in children is not justified.
“It is a hasty decision to give vaccine to children when the severity of Covid in them is rare and death is even rarer. The safety aspects of Covaxin and ZydCov-D have not been established beyond doubt. In the case of Covaxin, the safety study was conducted on a smaller sample size which I think is not enough when we decide to use it on crores of children in the country,” said Dr Purushothaman. He also said the efficacy of the killed virus vaccine was low at 52%.
The debate on vaccination is not new even among experts and it has contributed to developing better policies and practices. The governments also see a larger role for vaccination beyond individual safety. It is used as a public health tool to check transmission of infectious diseases.
“By vaccinating a majority of children, even the unvaccinated children do not get the disease. It is the spillover effect or the herd effect to drastically reduce the transmission. Leaving the under 18 without vaccination will not help in reducing the transmission of coronavirus,” said Dr Jacob. “Eventually, vaccination is necessary both for the children’s health and for reducing the transmission and protecting all vulnerable people,” he added.