The Secretary of Health has erased at a stroke the pediatricians who are treating children with Covid-19 by recommending teas and vaporub. Oh, and paracetamol. With that and that they stop bothering the adults because they are working and because he would not vaccinate his grandchildren even if he had an extra dose of Pfizer in the warehouses.
However, there is enough information to warn that the decision should be, at the very least, discussed among peers. The World Health Organization has wisely endorsed, I would say, the vaccination strategies of countries that do not have excess doses. The best thing is that everyone is vaccinated, but if you cannot, then as you can and with attention to the urgent. You know, the urgent never leaves time for the important.
Thus, in our country we start with the high-risk population. That happened in the first quarter of last year. To date, only 58% of the Mexican population has full doses (before the booster), adolescents have had a single dose, teachers have already been left unprotected due to the time that has passed since they were given the Cansino and more than 15 million children under the age of 11 are totally defenseless. Well no, the secretary will say, they don’t get anything or give them a little grip, and if their chest hurts, then rub them with smelly ointments.
Doctors from the Mexican Academy of Pediatrics have a different opinion. Dr. Guillermo Yanowsky, coordinator of the Covid Kids strategy at the Hospital Civil de Guadalajara, tells me that international information is already robust and it is possible to attend to the evidence to say two things with complete certainty: a) that the pediatric population does not It is exempt from having problems due to Covid and b) that the vaccine in children is safe and not only protects them.
First, it is true that the immune system of children has proven to be more efficient against the virus and it is already known that 80% of children who contract the disease will have no symptoms or will not have severe symptoms. That percentage is nothing bad, it’s great. But it is not 100 percent. 20% can have a bad time. 5% will need oxygen. How much is that? In the Civil Hospital of Guadalajara there were, during 2021, 150 hospitalized children. So yes, most will not have problems but no, not all come out the same from contact with the virus.
The most worrying thing, Yanowsky explains to me, is that 15% of the asymptomatic cases registered in children have sequelae. They never suffered from a cough, or diarrhea or a sore throat, but months later they arrive at the hospital with problems that require attention. Among the sequelae, the one that worries the most is that of a serious syndrome known as multisystemic inflammatory syndrome.
So yes, the reality is that children’s immune systems allow them to develop Covid-19 disease with much less problems than adults. Only 2 out of 10 will feel bad and only 2 out of 15 will have sequelae. That allows us to live without fear, but forces us to take precautions.
The vaccine for children has been tested and accepted, with a lower dose than is required by adults. In Mexico, without the assistance of other authorities in the competent collegiate body, a person has decided that it has no purpose to buy millions of doses for Mexicans who, he believes, do not need them. The federal government must now adopt a strategy to protect all children because a) it is clear that not all are safe and b) all communicable diseases that have been stopped, all without exception, have been stopped by vaccinating minors.
Political scientist
Soup
Ivabelle Arroyo Ulloa is a political scientist and analyst, with 24 years of journalistic experience. He is a jury member of the Walter Reuter German Prize for Journalism in Mexico. He directs a digital magazine about politics in the capital city and writes for Jalisco media.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx