The High Health Authority opens the door to an anti-Covid vaccine, that of Pfizer / BioNTech, for children at risk, from 6 months to four years old. A first in France.
This is the last age group to protect once morest Covid-19. Children under five still don’t have a licensed vaccine for them. This might change in the coming weeks. The High Authority for Health (HAS) recommended the vaccination “children aged 6 months to 4 years included at risk of a serious form of the disease and death and that of children in this age group who live in the entourage of an immunocompromised person or a non-responder to vaccination”.
The authorized product is Pfizer’s Comirnaty®, approved for this age group by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on November 25. The recommended dose is 3 micrograms per injection, with a schedule of three injections spaced three and then eight weeks apart.
Children with one of the following conditions are targeted: congenital heart disease, chronic liver disease, chronic heart and respiratory disease (including severe asthma requiring ongoing treatment), neurological disease, primary or induced immunodeficiency by medication, obesity, diabetes, hematological malignancies, sickle cell disease and trisomy 21. Also included in the opinion are “the children with one of the comorbidities previously identified in adults as risk factors for developing a severe form of the disease» (recent cancer, chronic kidney disease or neurological disability). In addition, medical specialists must also be able to offer vaccination to children outside this list, according to “an assessment of the individual benefit/risk ratio”.
Finally, to better protect those most at risk, the HAS also recommends vaccinating the youngest whose family member is immunocompromised or does not respond to vaccination. The government must now decide whether to follow this recommendation or not.
To render its opinion, the HAS specifies that it took into account several data. Epidemiological on the one hand, children under one year old representing 70% of hospitalizations for 0-17 year olds. Efficacy data then, the Pfizer vaccine would have an effectiveness of 80.3% once morest symptomatic infections for all age groups between 6 months and 4 years who have no history of infection. Finally, tolerance “no deaths, no cases of myocarditis or pericarditis were reported in the various studies conducted”. In the United States, this vaccination is open to all age groups without conditions.
