TRENTO. Why have a minor vaccinated? This is asked by many parents of children between 12 and 17 who, in light of the new green pass rules, want to avoid further restrictions for their children. Lorena Filippi, pediatrician and treasurer of the Order of Doctors, has no doubts about why vaccinating them.
«To get their life back in their hands. We cannot think of facing a third lockdown because the psychological health of the children would be compromised. They tolerated the first lockdown quite well, but in the second there were exponential increases in mental disorders, depression, anxiety and hospitalizations for suicide attempts. For this we must vaccinate them, to keep them healthy and avoid the effects of a further lockdown ».
So the benefits outweigh the risks?
Yes, the benefits are much greater. And then what risks are we talking about? We are talking about a vaccine that like all the others we have always done in childhood, has mild local side effects, in some cases headache, muscle pain, even a low-grade fever, but they are expected side effects that do not worry us and that in turn for a few hours, they disappear. The only real side effect of the vaccine for Covid as with other vaccines is the risk of anaphylactic shock. But this is a very rare occurrence, so rare that a pediatrician would have to work 20 lives to see a vaccine anaphylactic shock. The anaphylactic shock due to wasp stings, on the other hand, is much more frequent, only the wasp sting and the shock occurs in the woods where help is further away. The hypothetical and very rare vaccine anaphylactic shock occurs in an environment where there is a doctor who can immediately intervene and save the child.
Some studies talk about an increase in vaccine-related myocarditis?
When a vaccine is put on the market, there are agencies responsible for taking care of controls and safety and this must reassure the use of the vaccine and the side effects. Cases of myocarditis have been reported, but to date it has not yet been understood whether or not they are to be attributed to the vaccine or not because the same number of cases expected in the population has also been seen in unvaccinated and therefore is not yet proven. to date the vaccine / myocarditis relationship. As always, symptoms related to the heart such as chest pain or breathlessness should always be reported to the pediatrician, but that there is a proven relationship absolutely not.
Who are the children for whom the vaccine is not recommended?
Surely for those with diseases affecting the immune system, the immunologist or pediatrician should be consulted to understand if that disease puts the child at risk in receiving the vaccine. And then the only category for which even the Covid vaccine is not recommended is the one that has shown a serious adverse reaction to other vaccines.
Children and young people have less serious effects related to Covid and for this reason many say that vaccinations, for them, are something unnecessary.
It is true that children and young people are less affected than the elderly. Hospitalizations for Covid, even serious ones, but there are and what I feel like telling parents is that today we have no reasons to suspect long-term effects, I am talking about 5 or 10 years, and the Covid infection potentially we do not know what can give. We also see in boys the effects of long Covid, those long-lasting respiratory disorders, as well as multisystem inflammatory disease. So it is not true that Covid has no risks for children. The risks are there and we must protect them.
Today the second dose comes automatically after 21 days from the first. In reality there is the possibility to move the second dose to meet the needs of families and children. What are the limits?
For boys, the second dose can be done between 21 and 42 days. The vaccine was born with the booster at 21 days, then like all vaccines it has been seen that postponing the second dose improves the immune response and therefore it can go up to 42. Today, that there is no shortage of vaccines, I recommend doing it later. 21 days because the vaccine protects against the Delta variant with the second dose and so I tell the kids: “The sooner you do it the better.”
Is there any chance that by taking a swab a few days after vaccination this could then be positive?
No, let’s say the swab looks for viral RNA in secretions. It is impossible for the swab to be positivized with the vaccine. What I am saying is that we must hurry because we are seeing an increase in cases. We now have outbreaks in the nurseries because they are open, but when the schools reopen we will have them there too if there is not more coverage. We must arrive in September with the two doses to remove the bogeyman of the Dad that the boys could no longer bear.
Have you seen an increase in interest from the families of minors in recent days?
Yes, and this is absolutely positive because it means that families ask themselves the problem and call for the trusted pediatrician they have chosen for the care of their children and who can give certain answers.
And did you have any problems with your little patients who got vaccinated?
It must be said that there are far fewer vaccinated children than adults. In mine they only reported some pain in my arm, nothing more. Maybe I wouldn’t recommend doing it the day before leaving for the holidays, but otherwise I don’t think we should have any doubts. From the first dose it takes 15 days before the antibodies are produced and, as I said, for the Delta variant it takes the second dose. For this I would not wait. Waiting for September could be late, we must guarantee normality to the boys. Today we are dealing with the Delta variant which is only more contagious, but if we do not vaccinate we allow the virus to run and there is a risk that it will change and a more aggressive variant will come out.