Dutch Health Council scraps advice to vaccinate healthy children against Covid

The Dutch Health Council has withdrawn its recommendation to vaccinate healthy children between the ages of 5 and 11 against Covid-19. From now on, the Dutch health service should only recommend vaccination for children with other medical conditions that make Covid-19 more dangerous. health council said Tuesday.

Immunization for COVID-19 is now available for children aged 5 to 11 in December 2021. The Health Council advises parents to vaccinate their children because the vaccine protects against her MIS-C, a rare condition a child can contract when first infected with coronavirus. Did. Since then, about 3% of children in that age group have been vaccinated.

The majority of Dutch children have now been infected with the coronavirus at least once, the Health Council now says. Also, the risk of MIS-C is almost non-existent for subsequent infections. The risk of MIS-C is also smaller in the currently prevalent Omicron variant of coronavirus.

Therefore, the Health Council believes that there is “limited” benefit for vaccinated children in this age group.