Will children under 18 be vaccinated in South Africa?
According to News24, experts believe that to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, children should be included in the vaccine rollout programme. So why aren’t we vaccinating our children?
Currently the only vaccine that has been approved for people over the age of 16 is the Pfizer-BioNTech which means that currently there are no approved vaccines for children below 16 years of age. According to the Smithsonian, vaccine trials are conducted in order of “age de-escalation” beginning with adults who are most at risk for hospitalisation due to COVID-19. Trials have begun
on children to determine the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and will need to be concluded before including children in the vaccine rollout.