The COVID-19 vaccines have been available under emergency authorization by regulatory agents in many countries of the world for the 12-18 year old age group, including the UK and the USA. We hope it is coming our way soon in South Africa!
Some people have been worried about the risk-benefit ratio, as kids don’t tend to get too sick with COVID and the vaccine has a rare side effect in this age group of pericarditis (inflammation of the lining of the heart- which- to put it in perspective- is usually mild and self-limiting with rest and pain killers).
Here are some convincing data from a study by Dr Deepta Gurdhasani in the UK (osf.io preprint August 2021) regarding adolescents and COVID:
It was estimated based on infection statistics that between July and October 2021 in the 12-17 year old group:
➡️ 5100 children would require hospitalization
➡️ 330 would require ICU care
➡️ 280 would be ventilated
➡️ 40 would die
With full vaccination of this age group, it would PREVENT:
➡️ 4630 cases of hospitalization (EVEN TAKING INTO ACCOUNT ADMISSIONS FOR VACCINE-RELATED PERICARDITIS)
➡️ 300 ICU cases
➡️ 250 cases of ventilation
➡️ 36 deaths
➡️ Up to 31 000 cases of long COVID
➡️ Much community transmission
I’M CONVINCED!
I’LL BE FIRST IN LINE TO HAVE MY KIDS VACCINATED AGAINST COVID-19!
Bring on normality for our children