Covid-19 Vaccine for Children and Adolescents: How It Works

, at least for what concerns our country. In Canada and the United States, on the other hand, the younger population has already been vaccinated. In Europe, the green light of the EMA is expected. Vaccinating against Covid-19 adolescents and children will allow to give a further coup de grace to the virus, and limit its circulation to the maximum. Although younger children are less likely to develop a severe disease - the long-term effect of Sars-Cov-2 remains to be known -, younger age groups contribute to the spread of the virus. Just think of the effect. thousands of cases of contagion fly right from children, who came into contact with the virus in school environments, and which was then transmitted to parents and grandparents.

, some age groups and categories of people were excluded from the tests. Adolescents, children and pregnant women, in fact, were not included in the trials that led to the formulation, first, and then to the sale, of the first vaccines against the Coronavirus. However, with the passage of time, evidenced reliable data in terms of safety and efficacy in the adult population, even these categories previously not contemplated, have finally been included in clinical trials. From the experimental tests today comforting results are starting to arrive. for example, the trials carried out in Canada and the United States, which subsequently gave the green light to the administration of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the age group between 12 and 16 years.

Meanwhile, for the other age groups, from June it will also be possible to get vaccinated at the pharmacy.

The test results

In Canada and the United States, the results highlighted on adolescents leave no room for interpretation. The researchers conducted an experimental study on a sample of 2260 children between the ages of 12 and 15. In the placebo group there were 18 cases of symptomatic disease, while in the group of young people who received the vaccine there were zero cases recorded. A result that in terms of effectiveness leads back to what was recorded with the adult population. The same goes for what concerns the side effects. Also in this case there were side effects similar in frequency and symptomatology with those recorded in adults.

Comirnaty, than with the other available vaccines. The goal is to be able to have a formulation suitable even for the age group between 6 months and 11 years. In this sense, several pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen are already working on get the first useful data from the tests.

. By reducing viral replication, the risk of generating a genesis of variants that are potentially more contagious or capable of reducing the effectiveness of vaccines will be significantly lower.

Massimo Galli, director of the infectious diseases department of the Sacco hospital in Milan, is of the same opinion. According to Galli, it will be impossible to obtain herd immunity without vaccinating even the youngest population. "It is very important to vaccinate even the youngest children against the coronavirus because it is now clear that, especially with the new variants, they are an important reservoir of infection. The hope, one day, of having herd immunity, collapses without the possibility to vaccinate children too ".

There does not seem to be a dangerous relationship between vaccine against Covid-19 and alcohol in moderate quantities.