Vaccine 5-11, pediatrician to parents: “No postponement until after Christmas”

Do not postpone the vaccine for children between the ages of 5 and 11 until after Christmas. This is the appeal addressed to parents, through Adnkronos Salute, by the pediatrician Italo Farnetani, professor at the Free Ludes University of Malta. “I invite parents to get their children vaccinated against Covid as soon as possible and not postpone it until after the Christmas holidays. And not even postpone it for a few days”, says Farnetani, who says he is “happy that he has earned a week and that he starts vaccinating. those under 12 on December 16, one week before the scheduled date of 23 “, for two fundamental reasons of safety and opportunity. “The first reason is that the vaccine, as shown by the millions of doses already injected in other countries, gives irrelevant side effects, in the majority of cases absent, while Covid is a potentially dangerous disease in children and the longer you wait, the more protected people. there are, and more at risk, those who have not yet received the vaccination “, says Farnetani. The second reason, continues the pediatrician, is that “if we wait, we risk having to subject the children to the vaccine in the period with the greatest number of diseases of the year, which is the one that runs from mid-January to mid-March. In this period, after the decrease in infections and diseases due to the closure of schools for the Christmas holidays, there is a surge in infections “. Therefore in mid-January, until mid-March among children to be vaccinated, ie those between 5-11 years old” it is expected that every day there will be more than 400 thousand people with cough, of which 50 thousand with fever, due to the maximum circulation the adenoviruses responsible for sore throats. The two-month period January-February is the one with the maximum circulation of this infectious agent of the year , while between January-March there is the maximum spread of the respiratory syncytial virus, highly dangerous in the first months of life, but which between the ages of 5 and 11 is responsible for tracheobronchitis that cause coughing “. Based on these data, continues Farnetani, “if shortly before the vaccination appointment the child presents any symptoms, before postponing it, I recommend contacting the pediatrician and asking him for his opinion. In fact, contraindications to vaccine inoculation are extremely rare. but it must be the doctor who decides it “. In all cases, however” I advise not to postpone the vaccination and to do it in the first days when it is available, it is better to be protected already during the Christmas holidays, so I recommend taking the ‘appointment as soon as possible, not in the most convenient vaccination center, but in the one where the first appointment is, even if it should be far from home “.