Coronavirus vaccine: 600 children experience no side-effects after receiving their COVID shot, Israeli doctors report – Times of India

While the second phase of the COVID vaccination process started on a positive note, parents are still awaiting a safe and a promising vaccine for their children. Given that the University of Oxford in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca have begun its vaccine trial on children aged six to 17, they are yet to confirm the effectiveness of the vaccine on them.

However, according to the latest reports, hundreds of children were given the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine dose and have experienced no side-effects from the same.


COVID-19 risk in children


While everyone is susceptible to the coronavirus infection, children seem to have a lower likelihood of catching the virus or developing serious complications than adults.


As per the reports of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 97 lakhs of people in India have been infected with the novel coronavirus and nearly 12 per cent of the infected population fall under the age of 20 years. Rest 88% are above the age of 20 and beyond, as per reports.

However, children who develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) need to be handled with utmost care and attention.

Is it safe for children to get vaccinated?


According to reports from Israel, 600 children between the ages of 12 and 16 have been given Pfizer/BioNtech vaccination in Israel, following which there have been no cases of adverse reactions or children experiencing side-effects.

Dr. Boaz Lev, Head of the Health Ministry’s advisory team to the cabinet, said, “We have so far immunised somewhere around 600 children.” “We didn’t see any major side-effects; even minor ones are quite rare. This is encouraging,” he said.

The children who received approvals for the vaccination had risk factors such as diabetes, obesity, chronic lung and heart diseases and cancer.

However, children suffering from cystic fibrosis were not part of the clinical trial.