Greece: Vaccination of children from 2 years old expected in March

Greek pediatrician Spyros Mazanis expresses concern about the spread of coronavirus among children and the too slow pace of vaccination:

Recording platform opened on December 10th children from 5 to 11 years old for vaccination against coronavirus, the first vaccinations were made on December 15. During the briefing, Vana Papaevangelou, member of the commission of epidemiologists, professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the Kapodistrias National University of Athens, said that mass childhood vaccination against coronavirus will reduce the number of infections in schools and increase the immunity of society as a whole. She assured that the data on the safety of vaccines for children from Israel and the United States are excellent.

“Vaccination is underway, but not as fast as we would like, especially at the age of 5-11 years. About 17% of the total number of 700,000 children are vaccinated, we are going too slowly. From 12-14 years old, about 35% are vaccinated, and from 14-17 years old we are close to reaching 45%. We are not able to reach the number of children we wanted to vaccinate in the winter.”

The pediatrician informs about the upcoming vaccination of the smallest. It is expected that in early March, permission will be obtained for vaccinations for children aged 2 years and older, and in the coming months – for babies aged 6 months and older:

“At the end of February-beginning of March, an authorization will be issued for the vaccination of children aged 2 years and older, and in the following months – from 6 months and older. It will be issued by the European Medicines Agency.”

Mr. Mazanis expressed concern about the effects of the coronavirus on children, often even months later:

“Multisystemic inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) is increasingly being discussed. There are several children who have been hospitalized with this syndrome. It occurs when the disease has passed: after 15 days, 1 month, 2 months, the child may have a high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, rash, redness of the eyes. After special examinations, we find a syndrome that torments both the child and his family.”

Recording platform opened on December 10th children from 5 to 11 years old for vaccination against coronavirus, the first vaccinations were made on December 15. During the briefing, Vana Papaevangelou, member of the commission of epidemiologists, professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the Kapodistrias National University of Athens, said that mass childhood vaccination against coronavirus will reduce the number of infections in schools and increase the immunity of society as a whole. She assured that the data on the safety of vaccines for children from Israel and the United States are excellent.

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