EPA/Sergey Dolzhenko
The announcement of the vaccination of the youngest caused an avalanche of questions and dilemmas among the parents, and the advice of the doctor, the interlocutor of “Vesti”, is that the children should receive the vaccine. The population over 16 years of age, according to the instructions of the Institute of Public Health “Dr Milan Jovanović Batut”, can only receive Pfizer for now.
The president of the Association of Pediatricians of Serbia, Dr. Georgios Konstantinidis, believes that as many teenagers between the ages of 16 and 18 should be vaccinated at this stage, pointing out that children of that age behave approximately the same as adults in the epidemiological sense. That is, they also suffer from Covid-19 as well as people aged 20 or 25, and they have a more severe clinical picture and a higher risk of a fatal outcome than toddlers.
– It is certainly time for them to start getting vaccinated en masse at this age, because when it comes to covid, if we make a parallel by age, teenagers are among children what 60-year-olds are among adults – says Dr. Konstantinidis for “Vesti” .
He believes that the path of the virus would be cut off, so it would not be necessary to vaccinate younger children, if there were mass vaccinations of adults and young people aged 16 to 18.
It is absolutely justified to give teenagers a vaccine against COVID-19, is the position of pediatrician Dr. Tomislav Stevanovic, who says for “Vesti” that tests have shown that after vaccinating teenagers with a phaser, high immunity without side effects was shown.
He points out that it has been shown that children, even babies with mild symptoms, and even without them, can have microembolism as a consequence of the disease.
– That is why children should be vaccinated so that they do not get sick, but also so that they do not transmit kovid, because in environments where the collective immunity of 80% of the population has not been reached, the spread of the virus can cause new mutations – warned Stevanović.
Babies can also get sick
Pfizer’s research on 2,500 children aged 12 to 15 showed a 100 percent efficiency of the vaccine, and pulmonologist Dr. Tatjana Radosavljevic points out that this is a serious study, and that time will show whether the youngest will be able to receive other vaccines besides this one.
– Children should be vaccinated so that they do not get sick, because it has been shown that babies can also get sick, but also that this young population would not spread the virus – said Dr. Radosavljević for our paper.
Ready answer
Pfizer’s trials began on children from six months of age and up. Dr. Marija Gnjatović from the Institute for the Application of Nuclear Energy believes that it is good that vaccines are being prepared for children as well, so that they would have a ready answer if a strain appears that is especially dangerous for the youngest.
She does not expect that the recommendation for vaccinating children will be given before 2022, and during that time, she says, it should be examined how infected the children are. The position on vaccination of children under the age of 15 was not defined by the World Health Organization. The US Food and Drug Administration has recommended vaccinating children aged 12 to 15, and the position of the European Medicines Agency is awaited.
Cheaper PCR
Greece has raised the ramps at the borders, but a lot is still being done on the move, including how children under the age of 16, who cannot be vaccinated in Serbia, will enter. For now, this country is looking for a negative PCR test, not older than 72 hours, and since in Serbia that test costs 9,000 dinars for a family with two children, aged five and 16, it needs 18,000 dinars or a little more than 150 euros.
Gordana Prodić, the president of the Board of the Association of Independent Tourist Agencies of Serbia, hints for “Vesti” that there is a possibility of easier entry of children over five years of age, and even adult Serbian tourists, adding that the answer is still awaited. With the option mentioned, Greece accepts a rapid antigen test that is three times cheaper than the PCR test.
Prodić reveals to us that there is a possibility that those who have a contract with a travel agency for travel during the holidays pay significantly less for the PCR test, or that the state fully subsidizes that test.
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