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But the agenda for this Thursday did not come about because of the latest warning calls from pediatricians and psychologists (who, incidentally, in one and a half years of fighting the pandemic, have never managed to be taken as seriously by the Chancellor as the epidemiologists, virologists and mathematicians they believe in advised). No, it is the vaccination campaign that turns the virtual meeting of the prime ministers with the chancellor into a children’s summit.
Presumably, the Biontech vaccine will be released in the EU for children from the age of twelve in May. That’s the good news – especially for children with pre-existing conditions. At the same time, however, for the first time ever in the pandemic, there is an oath regarding how politics and society treat the youngest. In two ways.
The mere simulation of a child-friendly pandemic policy is now discredited
First, the release of a single vaccine for children means that exactly this vaccine would have to be reserved for them – at least if you are serious about a vaccination offer until the new school year. Conversely, these doses of the favorite vaccine of all Germans are naturally omitted for the other age groups – a social test in terms of the solidarity of the old with the young. Meanwhile, the first experts are already complaining that prioritizing children is not possible because it slows down the vaccination campaign. Oh well. At this point it may be useful to briefly recall how resistance to Astra Zeneca in the over-60s group affected the vaccination campaign.
Second, the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko), with its suggestion that it would not recommend vaccination across the board for all children, focused on a circumstance that politics has so far been able to suppress with impunity: that children and adolescents are least likely to suffer from a Covid infection, but suffer most severely and possibly most permanently from the pandemic-related restrictions. The Stiko emphasizes that children only very rarely get seriously ill with Covid-19, which is why the risk and benefit of a vaccination are more unfavorable for them than for adults. The goal of herd immunity or the fact that schools and day-care centers with vaccinated children are easier to organize are less important.
The vaccination experts put the federal and state governments in an uncomfortable situation. Because it is possible that the widespread vaccination of the children will not work – and thus with the politically most painless way out of the self-inflicted school and daycare misery.
Nevertheless, the situation is not hopeless: vaccinations around the children, vaccinations of children whose parents want this in spite of the Stiko, air filters, PCR pool tests instead of mediocre, informative Popel tests before class – there is room for improvement. However, the mere simulation of a child-friendly pandemic policy is finally discredited. “Recovered, vaccinated, tested” can pave the way to a more normal life for adults, but not for children. Nevertheless, they have a right to get their lives back in step with the big guys.
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