Useful information - How does Covid affect children?

ISS 10 dicembre 2021 

How does Covid affect children?

Although Sars-CoV-2 affects children less than adults, it can represent a health hazard also in childhood: so much so that roughly 6 children out of 1,000 are hospitalized and nearly 1 out of 7,000 are in an intensive care unit. Moreover, also in the cases (fortunately the great majority) in which the infection develops completely asymptomatically, it is not possible to exclude the onset of complications such as the multisystem inflammatory syndrome (a rare but serious condition that simultaneously affects several organs), as well as of what is generally called “long Covid”, which entails the appearance of undesired effects a long time after the infection.

What type of vaccine is given to children in the 5-11 age group?

The Pfizer-Biontech paediatric vaccine approved by the EMA, which contains the same active principle as the one for adults (mRNA vaccine). However, in the case of smaller children, the dose is about a third compared to that of others. The vaccination is administered in two doses three weeks apart.

What must I do before the vaccine?

- Talk to the child before the vaccination to thoroughly explain what you are about to do

- It is not recommended to administer painkillers before the vaccination in the attempt to prevent possible side effects

- Report to the vaccinating doctor if the child ever suffered an allergic episode

- To prevent traumas arising from a possible fainting spell during vaccination, the child should be made to sit or lie down

And after the vaccination?

- After the vaccination, the child should remain 15-30 minutes under observation before leaving the vaccination centre in order to monitor the possible appearance of allergic reactions and, if so, enable timely action.

What are the principal side effects?

- The arm receiving the injection could ache, redden and swell

- The child could develop symptoms such as tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever and nausea. These symptoms are generally mild and disappear in 1-2 days.

Fake news

Children do not catch Covid and, if they do, they do not die and only manifest mild symptoms and have only a low virus transmission capacity. It’s useless to vaccinate them.

Since the beginning of the epidemic, there have been over 263,000 cases, 1,453 admissions in medical wards, 36 admissions in Intensive Care Units, and 9 deaths in the 6-11 age group (data at 1/12/2021). In the last few weeks, the number of infections in this age group has risen steeply.

The Sars-CoV-2 infection can represent a health hazard, even if to a smaller extent compared to adults, so much so that roughly 6 children out of 1,000 are hospitalized and nearly 1 out of 7,000 are in an intensive care unit. Moreover, also in the cases (fortunately the great majority) in which the infection develops almost completely asymptomatically, it is not possible to exclude the onset of complications such as the multisystem inflammatory syndrome (a rare but serious condition that simultaneously affects several organs), as well as of what is generally called “long Covid”, which entails the appearance of undesired effects a long time after the infection.

The vaccine has proved to be effective in reducing the risk of infection by approximately 91%. The beneficial effects of vaccines not only include protection against the disease but also give the possibility of attending school more safely and lead a social life full of recreational and educational activities that are particularly important for the mental growth and personality development of this age group.

The vaccine exposes children to the risk of adverse effects that they would not have without the vaccine

As any other drug and vaccine, also the anti-Covid-19 vaccine may present the risk of side effects. The safety of anti-Covid vaccines is continually monitored by regulatory agencies worldwide and, for younger age groups, the risk of severe adverse events has resulted to be extremely rare. The risk of adverse events must be set against the risk of suffering the consequences of the infection and this is the basis on which regulatory agencies calculate the risk-benefit ratio.

The EMA, the European Medicines Agency, has concluded that the risk-benefit ratio is positive also in the 5-11 age group.

The number of children participating in the clinical development of vaccines is too small to detect the possible risk of vaccination-associated myocarditis

A higher risk of myocarditis and pericarditis has been reported in younger subjects (adolescents and young adults) although it nonetheless remains extremely low: around 50 cases per million after two vaccine doses. Moreover, in most of these cases, the course of symptoms was completely benign. A lower risk of developing these pathologies is generally observed in smaller children and no such case was reported in the clinical trials. The information on their safety now available not only concerns the 3,000 children that received the vaccine in the clinical trials but also includes the first data collected from the more than 3 million children in the 5-11 age group already vaccinated in the United States. The safety of the vaccine will in any case be constantly monitored by all supervisory agencies worldwide.

Vaccines facilitate inflammatory processes that produce changes in the blood of smaller children

There are no studies that show a correlation between the vaccine and this type of problem.

Vaccines weaken children’s not yet fully developed immune system

Children’s immune system is ‘programmed’ to react to possible threats from birth. The anti-Covid vaccine, like all other vaccines, ‘teaches’ the immune system to recognize the infectious agent before actual exposure, thus contributing to reinforce it.

Sources:

https://www.fda.gov/media/153717/download 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/children-teens.html

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-demographic