The vaccination campaign in European countries takes place in different ways, with somewhere more than half of the population vaccinated, and somewhere less than 20%.
The process has been going on for six months. In all states, he started with the protection of the most vulnerable groups, and then each country went its own way. Edoardo Kolzani, chief expert at the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention, notes:
“There is no one strategy that works best in all contexts and in all places. Each strategy depends on the local context, the availability of the vaccine, the risk to the population and the epidemiological situation at the moment.”
Brussels said that 58% of the population in the European Union received the first dose. But if in Malta and Belgium more than 70% of the population received one vaccination, in Bulgaria this figure is only 16%. Almost all countries have announced vaccinations for all age groups 18+, with the exception of Spain, Portugal and Ireland.
The next stage of mass vaccination in the EU is coverage of adolescent coronavirus vaccinations. So far, only Pfizer / BioNTech has been approved by the European Medicines Agency for use in children, and Moderna is under consideration. Immunologist Sophie Lucas from Belgium explains that vaccination is being considered for the 12-15 age group. The incidence among adolescents is low, but their vaccination will protect adults and achieve herd immunity:
“They are not mini-adults, they have their own ways of responding to vaccines. Therefore, it is very important to test drugs in different age groups to determine the appropriate dose, for example, for 12-year-olds. to carry out this testing on those over twelve.
In addition to the individual benefits that children have, they also have collective benefits. It is becoming increasingly clear that vaccination reduces the risk of transmission of viral disease. Even if adolescents are not particularly severely ill, they are a reservoir for this virus and can contribute to its spread. So reducing transmission of the virus among people under the age of 18 can be extremely beneficial from a collective point of view. “
Some countries – Romania, Germany, Italy, Estonia, France – have already started vaccinating adolescents over 12 years old. The main task of Brussels now is to provide them with the required number of doses.
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