vaccinating children can also be used to “protect fragile relatives”, according to the president of the French Pediatric Society

Vaccinating children aged 5 to 11 can also be used “to protect the fragile relatives, and in particular the immunocompromised people”, declared Tuesday, November 30 on franceinfo Christèle Gras Le Guen, president of the French Pediatric Society, and head of pediatric emergencies at the Nantes University Hospital, while the High Authority of Health recommended vaccination against Covid-19 for children ages 5 to 11 who present risks.

The pediatrician reminded that children “at very high risk with deficits of the immune system had already been vaccinated” and that this recommendation will be an opportunity to vaccinate all those who “have a lower level of risk”, citing children with congenital heart defects and severe asthma.

The other children targeted by this recommendation are children close to frail people, especially immunocompromised people or those who could not be vaccinated. This so-called strategy “cocooning, we have used it for a long time with the flu”, explains Christèle Gras Le Guen. “For lack of vaccinating the little ones, we vaccinate their parents, for the Covid we do the opposite, we vaccinate the most fragile children or grandchildren to protect them”, she continues.

On the generalization of vaccination to all children, the pediatrician recommends waiting. “If this vaccine does not obviously serve to limit the circulation of the virus and is intended for children who are very little exposed to severe forms, the vaccine is of no use to them”, she thinks. We must also wait for the results of the vaccination of children on a large scale in the United States, which will allow us to answer these questions.