At the same time, vaccination is the best means of combating infectious diseases available, the virologist continued. However, the main focus of vaccination against coronavirus should be on older people and those with chronic diseases, he said.
More than 120 thousand cases have been identified. Current about COVID on January 31
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Whether teenagers will be massively vaccinated with them depends to a large extent on how vaccination will be organized, said in an interview with RBC, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the laboratory of cell proliferation at the Institute of Molecular Biology. V.A. Engelhardt Petr Chumakov.
“Teens are active people, they communicate a lot with their peers, attend schools, colleges, and can easily catch an infection. Especially now, when omicron actively infects young people. So, most likely, many will go to be vaccinated. But the most important thing is that a vaccine for young people can help to “turn off” the pandemic faster,” he said.
According to Chumakov, they will willingly go for vaccination in families where, in addition to teenagers, there are elderly people who are afraid of infection – “there, vaccines for minors were especially expected.”
The specialist also drew attention to the fact that the vaccine will protect adolescents from a severe course of the disease. “We should not forget that young people can also have a hard time enduring COVID, including due to existing pathologies that are also found among adolescents,” he added.
Vaccinations for adolescents aged 12 to 17 in Moscow can be done at 13 children’s clinics. Vaccination is possible only upon written application of parents or legal representatives and voluntary consent to medical intervention.
It will be carried out with Sputnik M, a “children’s” version of Sputnik V, where the dosage of the drug is reduced by five times. The vaccine consists of two components that must be administered 21 days apart.