Fabienne Kochert, pediatrician in Orléans, chairs the French association of ambulatory pediatrics. She discovers with satisfaction, this Monday, the report of the High Authority of Health, favorable to the vaccination of 5/11 years: “it corresponds roughly to what the pediatricians had said, namely that the vaccine is effective in children and that it is necessary to have all the safety data to extend it to the whole age group 5/11 years and not only to children at risk. These health data seem quite satisfactory and there is a benefit to vaccinating children “
the benefit / risk ratio is favorable to the vaccination of children “
“You know very well that when it comes to Covid, things are constantly evolving, that at the beginning, pediatricians were not too favorable to vaccination. It is really the arrival of new variants, the fact that the circulation viral infection is important in communities with young children which means that we really continued to collect data to see if the benefit / risk ratio was entirely in favor of vaccination of the child. And the benefit / risk ratio is favorable, because of the new variants with a very important viral circulation in the age group under 11. And although the severe forms rarely affect children, we do not really know. what the future will tell us, so suddenly, there is an interest in vaccinating children and being able to offer this vaccination to children and parents without obligation, it is important “, explains Doctor Kochert, interviewed by France Bleu Orléans.
Vaccinate adults first! “
What advice does the pediatrician from Orleans give to parents of children aged 5/11 about vaccination? “What I am telling parents now as a priority, what is important to curb the epidemic, is really to vaccinate adults who are not yet vaccinated. I still see parents who are not vaccinated and I see them every day. And the importance of the dose booster in adults to boost the immune response “, explains Fabienne Kochert.
She continues: “afterwards, for children in priority, it is necessary to vaccinate the children at risk and also the children who live in the entourage of people at risk, that is to say the immunocompromised people. And after us, the pediatricians, will be able to go there gradually to avoid that It’s not happening everywhere. Me, I tell parents if they have grown-ups who are already in college, vaccinate adults as a priority. Because it’s true that in 6th, we have a mixture of unvaccinated children and children vaccinated. Already, if for the start of the January school year, we can have all the schoolchildren vaccinated, that’s already very good. And then, gradually, we go for the others. And the parents will make an appointment gradually for their children. “