There is disparity in COVID-19 vaccines among young people in Europe

TARTU, Estonia (AP) – Accompanied by her father, Gloria Raudjarv, 13, went to a vaccination center inside a sports hall in Estonia’s second-largest city and a nurse gave her the COVID-19 vaccine. .

So far, nearly half of Tartu’s teens ages 12 to 17 have already received their first vaccination, and local health authorities are aiming to hit 70% by the time school resumes on September 1.

“I really want to go to school already, we have been distance learning for so long,” said the girl.

Two months after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended that the coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech be extended to children between the ages of 12 and 15, large disparities are being observed in access to vaccination among young people across Europe. Last week, the EMA also approved the vaccine manufactured by Moderna for the same age group.

While countries such as Estonia, Denmark and France are actively encouraging families to vaccinate their children before the new school year begins, others such as Sweden and the United Kingdom have yet to start vaccinations for those under 18 years of age.

The World Health Organization has said that children are not a priority for vaccination due to extremely limited global supplies and the fact that they face a lower risk of becoming seriously ill and dying. The WHO has urged rich countries to stop vaccinating children and donate their doses to developing countries.

But the more contagious delta variant is accelerating infections even as vaccination rates rise among adults in Europe, and there are fears that young people are now accelerating the spread of the virus.

Maria Theodoridou, director of the Greek National Vaccination Committee, said that a significant increase has been observed in recent weeks in Greece of positive cases in children and adolescents.

Vaccination remains voluntary for children in Europe, but in Denmark, where more than a third of all children ages 12 to 15 are already receiving their first dose, health officials are hoping that parents will give in to the recommendations so that everyone get vaccinated before returning to class.

In France, where a third of all 12 to 17-year-olds have received at least one injection, the education minister drew criticism this week for announcing that from September, unvaccinated students in that age group would be sent to home if someone in your living room has COVID-19.

Critics said this would create a two-tier education system and unfairly discriminate against children whose parents are against vaccines. The WHO has said that children do not need to be vaccinated as long as the at-risk adults around them, including teachers and parents, are protected.

In the United States, only a quarter of children ages 12 to 15 who had access to the Pfizer vaccine as of May have already received their second dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the 16-17 age group, 37% are fully vaccinated.

In Estonia, where youth vaccination campaigns are run by municipalities, the rapid deployment in Tartu is attributed to a strong outreach campaign through schools and social media, simple registration procedures, and an educated population. Tartu is a university and research city.

For teens themselves, it’s mostly about seeing their friends again.

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Contributors include Jill Lawless and Maria Cheng from London, Elena Becatoros from Athens, Angela Charlton from Paris, and David Keyton from Stockholm, Sweden.

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