Should we be vaccinating children against COVID-19 in high-income countries?

Pediatric COVID-19: Immunopathogenesis, Transmission and Prevention

“…Based on these studies, mRNA and inactivated COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for emergency use in adolescents by the regulatory authorities of several countries, including the US, Israel, the UK and China, and by the European Medicine Agency; vaccination of this population is being rolled out in an increasing number of countries. Notably, the UK recently decided to restrict vaccination to adolescents who are at risk of severe COVID-19 and to those who are household contacts of immunosuppressed patients (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ jcvi-issues-advice-on-COVID-19-vaccination-of-children-and-young-people, accessed on 31 July 2021) As for any vaccine in any target population, the decision to recommend and implement COVID-19 vaccination of adolescents and younger children is based on benefit-risk analyses [120][121][122][123]. Although most children remain asymptomatic, 6% of children are hospitalized; 13% of those hospitalized meet the criteria for severe disease with a fatality rate of 1%, while others suffer from prolonged symptoms (long COVID) and could, therefore, benefit from vaccination [124].…”

Pediatric vaccination against COVID-19 and despite COVID-19

“…On the other hand, the direct benefits of universal vaccination of healthy children are marginal compared to universal vaccination of adults. 1 , 3 , 4 The burden of disease is low and mild, with the exception of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children temporally associated with SARS-COV-2 which, while rare, is associated with a high mortality (1%–2%) and develops in paediatric patients without identifiable risk factors, and it is not currently known how effective vaccines may be at preventing this form of disease. 3 Furthermore, children do not seem to be a major reservoir of the infection, and the observed pattern of transmission is from adults to children, and not the other way around.…”

Vacunación pediátrica frente al COVID-19 y a pesar del COVID-19

“…Por el contrario, el beneficio directo de la vacunación universal del niño sano es marginal comparado con el adulto 1 , 3 , 4 . La carga de enfermedad es baja y leve, con la excepción del síndrome inflamatorio multisistémico pediátrico asociado a SARS-CoV-2 que aunque poco frecuente, tienen una mortalidad elevada (1-2%), acontece en pacientes pediátricos sin factores de riesgo identificables, y todavía no sabemos si puede evitarse mediante vacunación 3 .…”