COVID-19 vaccines for children in LMICs: another equity issue

Safety data from the real-life roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines are continuously collected through surveillance systems in high-income countries (HICs)8,9 and are generally reassuring, although a rare vaccine-associated signal of transient inflammation of the heart muscle in some young adults has raise...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Lancet (British edition) 2021-08, Vol.398 (10302), p.731-732
Main Authors: Kampmann, Beate, Okomo, Uduak
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adults
Cardiac muscle
Child
Children
Children & youth
Chronic illnesses
Comment
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
COVID-19 - prevention & control
COVID-19 vaccines
COVID-19 Vaccines - supply & distribution
Developing Countries
Disease control
Disease transmission
Fatalities
Health Equity
Humans
Immunization
Mass Vaccination
Muscles
Older people
Pandemics
Pandemics - prevention & control
Personal health
SARS-CoV-2
Schools
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Surveillance systems
Systematic review
Vaccines
Viral diseases
Young adults
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Summary:Safety data from the real-life roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines are continuously collected through surveillance systems in high-income countries (HICs)8,9 and are generally reassuring, although a rare vaccine-associated signal of transient inflammation of the heart muscle in some young adults has raised concerns.10 On balance, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that benefits outweigh the risks.11 Countries are also still calculating what indirect benefits for reduced SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools and the wider community could be achieved by vaccinating CYP. A recent meta-analysis indicated that the outcome of children admitted to hospital with acute COVID-19 is worse in LMICs than in HICs (case fatality rates 0·29% [95% CI 0·28–0·31%] vs 0·03% [0·03–0·03%]).14 Vaccinating CYP in LMICs may ultimately have more benefit to their health status compared with CYP in HICs. Parents in LMICs need reassurance they are doing the right thing for their children, just as has been found in HICs.18 During deliberations on the potential benefits of COVID-19 vaccines for CYP, it is important to recognise that this pandemic has already deprived more than 8 million children, primarily in LMICs, from life-saving, routine childhood vaccines.19 Immunisation services are preoccupied with the implementation of COVID-19 vaccine programmes for adults.
ISSN:0140-6736
1474-547X
DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01748-7