“Children under 11 will have to be vaccinated”, estimated this Saturday on franceinfo Rémi Salomon, president of the medical establishment commission of the AP-HP, while Prime Minister Jean Castex spoke on Saturday December 11 of a “need” to vaccinate this young population, to stop this fifth wave of Covid-19. “The individual profit is probably relatively small”, however added Rémi Salomon, but according to him “we must take all means to slow this epidemic”.
franceinfo: Vaccinating children, is it a necessity as Prime Minister Jean Castex says?
Remi Salomon: Yes, I think it will have to be done. The epidemic started very strongly with the Delta variant, and the Omicron variant will probably arrive in a short time. It arrives extremely quickly in Great Britain. We have known for a few weeks that the virus circulates a lot in the age groups which are not vaccinated, that is to say before 11 years. They will need to be vaccinated. The individual benefit is probably relatively small because severe forms in children are exceptional. That being said, they will be able, by being vaccinated, to go to school more easily. There is still this individual benefit which must nevertheless be considered. We must take all means to slow down this epidemic.
Are we sure today that it is the children who infect the older ones?
We are never sure of anything. It is difficult to really identify the source of contamination, but there is clearly the possibility of contamination from children. Some people are very critical of this vaccination of children, saying that they should not be vaccinated on the pretext that adults do not vaccinate enough. I hear that argument and it is fully valid. As a result, everything must really be done for the 10% of French people who have not yet been vaccinated get vaccinated. We still have to make efforts to explain to them. And then, of course, do the third dose.
Children cannot be vaccinated before Christmas, so children will not be protected for Christmas meals. It should really be remembered that the meals can be shared with the grandparents, with the elderly subjects who are at risk of developing serious forms, provided that they have made the third dose. If they haven’t, I think it’s best to avoid taking risks. Care must be taken to protect the older ones. It is also necessary to do tests before the meal.
Regarding this vaccination of children, what do you say to those who say that we lack perspective?
It is true that we lacked perspective until recently. We will now have the opinion of the Haute Autorité de santé. More than five million children have been vaccinated, especially in the United States. We have what is called pharmacovigilance, which means we have very careful observation of all side effects. It was important to wait until the American children had their second dose and we could observe whether or not we saw these cases of myocarditis. In the days to come, we will find out.