- Saroj Singh
- BBC correspondent
image source, EPA
July 5, 2022 in India There were over a million active Crown patients. This figure is about 2 thousand more than the day before. Due to the reduction in the number of daily cases to a few thousand, now the fear among the people about the Crown has diminished.
The tension is more for the parents of those children for whom the crown vaccine is not yet available in India.
That is, parents of 5-11 year olds are a little scared right now. Especially because of this also because schools have opened after the summer holidays.
After the school opened in April this year, cases of crowning among children were reported in some schools, after which some schools resumed online classes.
However, currently the crown vaccine is not available in the market for children aged 5 to 11 years in India. But they have approval for emergency use by the central government. On April 26 this year, the Minister of Health of India also tweeted about it.
But even if the vaccine arrives, definitely read this report before vaccinating children.
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The Lancet reports
The research paper “When is the crown vaccine effective in children” has been published in the medical journal The Lancet.
Following the publication of this research paper, the debate has begun on whether the compulsory vaccination strategy for all children in front of the crown is effective or not.
This research, published on June 30, has been done on children who received the Pfizer vaccine.
The Pfizer vaccine was allowed to be used in children between the ages of 5 and 11 in December last year.
This research was done on children in Italy, where the Omicron variant of Kovid 19 was overthrown in January and a mass vaccination strategy was adopted.
According to the research, the infection rate among 1 thousand children who did not receive the vaccine between January and April was 42 thousand children. Of these, there were 57 cases of severe Kovid.
At the same time, the infection rate among 1 thousand children who were vaccinated was 23 thousand children. Of these, there were 26 cases of severe Kovid.
Experts explain these figures in their own way.
In this situation, how much can children be protected from the crown by getting vaccinated?
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Expert opinion in India
There is no need for a “mass vaccination strategy” for any age limit at this time in the fight against the Kovid epidemic, says Dr. Sanjay Rai, AIIMS epidemiologist.
Give the reasoning behind this. He argues: “The use of the vaccine should always have a clear goal. Either prevent disease or prevent serious covid or death.
Therefore, it must first be decided that in which group of children serious cases of Kovid appear, it will be a question to be seen. The second thing is that the role of the vaccine was very much at that time, when the infection did not spread as much. It was needed in the beginning. But over time their need has diminished. In the fourth ICMR serological survey, it was found that 60 percent of children have Kovid and it was not very serious.
Therefore, it is not necessary to give the vaccine against Kovid to children for no reason. There are also cases of some adverse events to the vaccine, which are very rare. But it is not appropriate to push children for these adverse events by vaccinating. “
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Arun Wadhwa, a well-known pediatrician in Delhi, also agrees with Dr. Sanjay.
In a conversation with the BBC, he says the Indian government should adopt the strategy of vaccinating children suffering from other diseases and children in need first, adopting the same strategy as in adults.
However, according to Dr. E Vikram Paradkar, spokesman for Biological E, the government of India should adopt the “mass vaccination” strategy. At the age of 5-11, the effect of the Kovid vaccine has been seen very well.
We still don’t know much about Long Kovid. This problem can also happen in children. In this situation, why should we risk the lives of children? This is so that children do not have to be admitted to the hospital. They say that after so much preparation not a single child should be admitted to the ICU.
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State of immunization of children in India
In India, the government of India has approved two vaccines for emergency use in children between 5 and 12 years old. Parents are still waiting for guidelines from the government of India for the public use of the vaccine.
this is the vaccine Corbevax from Biologicals E and Covaccine from Bharat Biotech.
In a press release issued by Biological E on April 22, it was reported that 300 million doses of Corbevax have been made, of which 100 million doses have also been supplied to the Government of India. Of these, 30 million doses have been used for young people aged 12 to 18 years. At the same time, the vaccine should also be used for children 5 to 12 years old, but it is not available on the market for use by all children.
Why the delay in vaccination in India for children aged 5 to 12? In response to this question, Dr. E. Vikram Paradkar says, “When the government of India approved the vaccine for children on April 25, then the vaccination campaign for children from 12 to 18 was underway. The government first introduced the vaccine to children of that age. ” We saw the effect and thought it appropriate to wait a while for children aged 5-12. Soon the government will allow the vaccination of children aged 5-12, we think. “
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The BBC tried to contact top officials of India’s Kovid working group on government strategy. But until the time of writing this news, we could not get any information from him. ,
Similarly, Bharat Biotech also has CDSCO approval for use in children aged 6 to 12 years. The Bharat Bytec vaccine is universal. That is, what adults feel, children will feel the same. The central government has approved only its emergency use.
Vanisha Pathak and her brother lost their parents in the second wave of Crown.