While the risk for severity and mortality of COVID-19 in children is very low, vaccine campaign proponents are now looking toward mass vaccinating children as a final effort to protect particularly vulnerable adults.
But is it worth it? Does whatever potential — and hypothetical — benefit to adults warrant vaccinating children against a disease that barely affects or harms them?
“Even if one assumes protection against severe covid-19, given its very low incidence in children, an extremely high number would need to be vaccinated in order to prevent one severe case,” a group of health professionals write in The BMJ.
If for no other reason, the ethics of vaccinating children to protect adults should be pause for thought. Should children be expected to carry this load and risk the possible harms, known or unknown, that could come from it? The authors say no — especially with no statistics on whether the mass vaccination of children has any impact on adult COVID cases, and no long-term evidence of efficacy and safety.
SOURCE: The BMJ Opinion July 13, 2021