The Grup Col•laboratiu Multidisciplinari per al Seguiment Científic de la Covid-19 (GCMSC), promoted by the Institut de Salut Global de Barcelona and the Col•legi de Metges de Barcelona, continues the good work it does summarizing what we know and what we don’t know about the pandemic with the publication of a report on the risk of vaccinating children and adolescents, an issue that worries many parents these days. After reviewing all the available data, they conclude that it is necessary to “promote the vaccination of the pediatric population with mRNA-based vaccines & rdquor ;, as other groups of experts around the world have also recommended.
Despite this unanimity among experts, vaccinating covid children still raises misgivings. The data we have after giving millions of doses clearly says that the low incidence of complications which, in addition, are mild when they exist, more than compensates for the substantially higher risk of suffering serious consequences, in the event that they become infected with covid. But still the protective instinct makes us exaggerate a prudence that can make us act less objectively and, in the long run, get the opposite effect the one we are looking for.
Once the risk is ruled out, the doubters’ other arguments are that vaccinating has no real benefit for the little ones and that, therefore, it is not ethical for us to do it as a service for the rest of society, since what we are looking for, above all, is that do not infect the elderly. It must be borne in mind that, despite the fact that it is true that covid is usually milder in the lower age ranges than in adults, the impact it has on this population is not negligible. As the GCMSC report explains, the year before the rubella vaccine was introduced in the US, this disease caused seventeen deaths. In the case of chicken pox, there were sixteen. Of the meningococcus, eight. The covid, on the other hand, sixty-six. As to intrinsic mortality, therefore, is above other infections against which we immunize children without hesitation. The same can be said of other serious complications: with current incidence data, in the United States they have calculated that, for every million children between the ages of five and twelve vaccinated, more than 400 hospitalizations and about 120 hospital admissions will be avoided. ICU. The overall benefits to your health seem indisputable.
Despite this, some argue that social gain continues to weigh more and that it is not fair that this altruism is imposed on children. But altruism has always been an essential component of getting vaccinated, at any age and for any disease, and may be a valid reason on its own to justify a massive childhood vaccination campaign. A few years ago, immunization against the papilloma virus began throughout the world, not only girls but also boys. This microbe is responsible for 90% of cervical cancers, but its impact on men’s health is minimal (cancers of the penis and anus are extremely rare, by comparison). Basically, in many countries children are routinely vaccinated so that, as adults, they do not participate in the transmission of the virus to their partners, that is, mainly to protect women. Despite knowing that personal benefit is practically nil, thousands of parents have not hesitated to allow their children to contribute to eradicating what was the third most common cancer in women and caused more than 300,000 deaths each year. With the covid vaccine, a similar social function could be argued.
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It may be that one of the basic causes of the current increase in anti-vaccine sentiment, from the most radical to the most lukewarm, from the most irrational to the most understandable and punctual, be the information overload to which we are subjected. For the first time in the history of epidemics and pandemics, we receive a constant bombardment of data everywhere, many of which we do not have the necessary knowledge to process, others false, mixed with contradictory opinions. This brings us to a saturation which makes one of the best weapons we humans have, critical thinking, turn against us and make us question undeniable truths.
Fears are natural, especially when they affect the people we love the most, but the best solution to face them is to know who we can trust. And above all, do not stay with a point of view just because it fits with the preconceived idea we have. Every opinion has to be based on data, and we have to make the effort to process it. Only then can we always make the right decision.