France poised to open Covid vaccination of children aged 5-11 Wednesday

France's health regulator approved the pediatric formula of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for all children aged 5-11 on Monday, as infections continue to rise in the country, particularly amongst children.

A child receives a vaccine against Covid-19 at a vaccination centre near Paris. Vaccination has been open to vulnerable children aged 5-11 since mid-December, and is likely to be opened to all on Wednesday. © Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters

The Haute Autorite de Sante (HAS) health authority’s approval Monday was the second, after the ethics committee’s Friday, needed by the government to start offering the vaccine to all children in France.

The government is waiting for a final green light from the vaccine strategy council that is meeting Tuesday morning, and could open vaccination to all children as early as Wednesday afternoon.

The decision to approve the vaccine in France comes “after consulting American real-life data based on vaccinations with boosters of two million American children” said Health Minister Olivier Veran in a weekend media interview.

Not mandatory

The HAS and the government insist that vaccination will not be mandatory. The HAS warned that the vaccination of children should not be linked to a health pass, either.

Surveys show that most French parents are opposed to vaccinating young children.

Since 15 December, vaccination has been open to children 5-11 who are at risk of developing serious forms of the illness or who live with immunocompromised people.

The HAS is pushing to prioritise middle schoolers who are younger than 12 whose classmates have already been eligible for vaccination, “to quickly complete the vaccination campaign” of this group of children.

#Communiqué | #COVID19 La HAS propose d’ouvrir la vaccination à l’ensemble des enfants de 5 à 11 ans, sans obligation, sans que cela conditionne l’obtention d’un passe sanitaire, et en priorisant les moins de 12 ans scolarisés au collège.
👉https://t.co/rGyJPzlU77 pic.twitter.com/ZBTdphMsnd

— Haute Autorité de santé (@HAS_sante) December 20, 2021

Covid on the rise

Covid infections continue to rise in France, and on Monday 3025 patients were in intensive care, the first time more than 3,000 have been in that situation since the end of May.  

Some say infections are being driven by unvaccinated children.

The incidence rate - number of cases per 100,000 - among those aged 0-9 is on the rise, at over 630, about the same as the younger adult population.

While serious cases in young children are rare, the new Omicron variant might change that, and children have also been proven to spread the virus.

Prime Minister Jean Castex personally became a public example of this when he tested positive for Covid, despite being fully vaccinated, after being a contact case of his 11-year-old daughter.

(with wires)