The accounts that the Autonomous communities are clear: it will take “less than four weeks” for regulatory agencies to approve the use of Pfizer in children under 12 years of age and, from there, “there will be no problem” to vaccinate this age group in Spain. Both the Ministry of Health and the Autonomous Communities hope to be able to do so in early November.
The results of the clinical trial published by the pharmacist Pfizer and BioNTech confirm that the preparation against Covid-19 is valid for children under 12 years of age and open a possibility to immunize this population group for which there are still no approved vaccines.
Specifically, the trial – it has been carried out in some 4,500 minors aged 5 to 11 in the United States, Finland, Poland and Spain – supports that the vaccine gives a “solid” response that coincides with what had already been observed in young people aged 16 to 25. The company has announced that it will request authorization to use the dose in children of this age range in the United States and Europe “as soon as possible.”
Thus, the health ministries of the Autonomous Communities, with which EL ESPAÑOL has contacted, predict that the regulatory agencies -first the United States Agency (FDA, for its acronym in English) and then the European Agency (EMA)– endorse the use of the preparation before the end of October and, in less than a week, it is being vaccinated in Spain.
“Once it is approved by the EMA, we estimate that in less than four weeks, the next step will be for it to be evaluated by the Public Health Commission and, finally, the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (SNS)“They have explained. In this way, Health would approve the inoculation for the month of October or early November.
Although the debate must be put on the table and it is the experts who will have the last word, neither the autonomies nor the teachers doubt that the use of this vaccine will be approved. Since the talk of immunizing children under 12 years of age began, there has always been a commitment to using preparations of Messenger RNA, as is the case with the vaccine Pfizer.
In the month of August, many Communities already gave the go-ahead for these trials and spoke of starting to immunize children under 12 years of age “from October or November.” The Junta de Andalucía She was one of the most forward-thinking in this regard and assured that her educational plan already included this assumption, along with the extraordinary reinforcement of teachers and cleaning staff.
There are vaccines
Health professionals are also in favor of inoculating this preparation. Pediatric Associations have insisted on the positive of immunizing this age group that, although it usually presents mild symptoms, is a virus transmitter like any adult.
Both health workers and teachers are committed to using the educational centers themselves as places to vaccinate these young people. Small vaccine fields where the preparation would be inoculated and that would avoid displacements. The Nursing professionals They add that they would be the most appropriate profiles for their role as “vaccinators.”
For the moment, the Communities assure that they have not thought about “where” and confirm that “that” is something that will have to be raised in a few weeks when the use of the vaccine is approved.
Children under 12 years of age account for approximately one 10% of the Spanish population, so their immunization could complete the long-awaited 90% of the vaccinated population. This figure would mean reaching the new group immunity, modified by the presence of variants of the coronavirus such as the Delta strain.
One of the problems that arose at the beginning of the pandemic, when vaccinating these minors was discussed, was the lack of doses. Currently, there are more than enough preparations for the population so, according to the Autonomies, there would be no problems of stock.
Good moment
At the moment, Spain has the lowest cumulative incidence since the start of the second wave. Good data is celebrated by health authorities and is directly linked to vaccination campaigns.
In fact, during the last weeks a spike in the presence of the virus among children that they had never been the age group most affected by the infection. The rapid inoculation of the vaccine in adolescents has made the youngest the age group that adds the most infections daily.
Although the country has an infected rate of 78.88 people with every 100,000 (According to the report of this Tuesday of the Ministry of Health), the situation oscillates in approximately 60 points between those that currently have more cases and those that less. Those under 12 years of age are at the highest with 119.10 positives compared to 59.73 for people between 60 and 69 years old.
The increase in cases among the smallest and the fact that go ahead to those of legal age it has occurred in a week. The first day that children under 12 years led the incidence of Covid-19 in Spain It was last Tuesday, with 143.11 cases per one hundred thousand inhabitants. The day before, Monday, September 13, this group registered 149.56 cases and was surpassed by young people aged 12-19 with 154.45.
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Reference-www.elespanol.com