[ad_1]
It may be possible to vaccinate 16- and 17-year-olds against COVID starting this fall, according to the Ekot Public Health Agency.
The authority is currently discussing with the pediatrician association which groups of young people are most in need of a vaccine.
This could be, for example, adolescents who are at risk of severe covid due to underlying diseases.
Bernice Aronsson, som is a pediatrician and researcher for the Public Health Agency telling Ekot that it is good to approach the problem step by step and start with people aged 16 to 17 who may be at a possible higher risk of severe covid-19. The authority analyzes what recommendations can be introduced and considers what benefits a vaccination of young people can bring.
Several studies are currently underway on how safe and effective vaccines are for young people between the ages of 12 and 17. Three manufacturers have started studies and the first results are expected in April for the PfizerBioNtec vaccine.
Why not If there are still any results on the effects of vaccines on young people, the Swedish Public Health Agency has no recommendations on vaccinating children and young people.
But Sweden’s vaccine coordinator Richard Bergström predicted this week that children and young people can be vaccinated as early as autumn, when he thinks Sweden will have more vaccines.
The Swedish Public Health Agency is now in continuous discussions with, among others, the pediatrician association to see which groups of children and young people can benefit from covid vaccines and which, if so, should be vaccinated first. It’s about, for example, avoiding difficult conditions like long-term covidity or hyper-inflammation in children, but also stopping larger outbreaks that could lead to more mutations.
Bernice Aronsson notes that it is about protecting children and young people from an uncertain future.
– It may be important to create a basic protection as soon as we feel confident that it is possible to vaccinate children and young people even in the face of what may come in the future with mutations and changes, etc., he concludes.
