Expert cautions against vaccinating children for Covid-19

Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, the Vice Chairman of the Research cell of the Kerala unit of the Indian Medical Association is of the opinion that children below the age of 15 should not be vaccinated. His comments have been made to a national media house in the light of a Subject Expert Committee recently allowing the administration of Covaxin to children between the ages of 2 and 18.

Dr Jayadevan, speaking to Times Now, said that children are not little adults. He added that they have a different type of immune system which is extremely efficient in handling the SARS-Covid-2 virus.

“We also do not know how the same immune system will react to vaccines whether they will develop complications that are rare, but serious,” he added.

After ZyCoV-D, Covaxin recently became the second Covid vaccine to receive emergency use approval for use in children in India. While ZyCoV-D is meant for children above 12 years of age, Covaxin can be administered to children from the age of 2 to 18. This is only for emergency approval and the vaccine has not been included in the national vaccination program.