Vaccines save lives. Measles vaccines alone are estimated to have prevented over 21 million deaths in less than two decades, according to UNICEF.
Vaccines help protect people against diseases that can cause serious harm especially in people with developing immune systems. Last week, the government of India announced that children above the age of 15 will be covered under covid-19 vaccine. The centre’s decision comes months after several countries with robust scientific institutions allowed vaccinations for kids. The covid-19 pandemic has already taken an invisible toll on the young, who have lost out on the learning and social interactions crucial for their formative years.
As on date, they are also the largest group that is unvaccinated. A variant as highly transmissible as Omicron can lead to a large number of infections in them.
Because the variant contains several mutations that allow the virus to escape antibodies, the forecast is that several — in spite of being vaccinated — may likely experience breakthrough infections or re-infections. Seen this way, this also bodes harm for children
Up until now, Covid-19 has caused mild symptoms in children. But in South Africa where the Omicron variant is now the dominant strain, there has been an increase in hospital admissions among young kids.
Even as children were not affected severely by the Covid pandemic in the past, vaccinating them will protect them from getting Covid and can also help keep them from getting seriously sick even if they do get Covid-19, as per a doctor’s body.
Covid-19 vaccine is required for children to return to classrooms and is important for ensuring a safe learning environment in schools, the doctors’ body said.
It underlined that defeating Covid-19 was impossible until children are vaccinated. It is hard to beat the pandemic without vaccinating children who constitute nearly 40 percent of the population, it stressed. Now that the government of India has opened up the vaccine for the kids and starts from January 1, there is a need to create awareness about the safety of the vaccines.
For parents, it can be difficult to make a confident decision amid the slew of studies and statistics. There might be reluctance on part of the parents to get their kids inoculated but the right information would be able to dispel whatever apprehensions parents might have. Vaccinating children could help re-openings schools but safety should be ensured at all levels.
