No need to vaccinate children against COVID-19 yet

There is no urgent need to vaccinate children and teenagers against COVID-19, however, if necessary, a special jab for children may be developed, Russia’s former chief sanitary doctor and First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education and Science Gennady Onishchenko said on Wednesday.

"Now this issue is being discussed. I believe that there is no urgent need for this - it is my opinion. Among those infected, I do not see the predominance of the child population," Onishchenko said.

"And children need a slightly different kind of vaccine," the former chief sanitary doctor noted, recalling that "there were adult and children's vaccines" against influenza.

Nevertheless, this is an open question with no clear answer, which requires thorough expert discussion, Onishchenko stressed.

"Everything shows that now more and more children are getting infected. As a rule, the majority of the [expert] community is already inclined to do this (to vaccinate children), but this requires a children's vaccine," TASS cited the former chief sanitary doctor as saying.

The Netherlands Association of Pediatricians has released a statement calling for the COVID-19 vaccination of teenagers aged 12-17. Russia’s COVID-19 jab for children is likely to be registered by September 15-20, according to Director of the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology Alexander Gintsburg.