Vaccination of children against COVID-19: foreign experience (literature review)

Abstract

The need to vaccinate children under the age of 12 against COVID-19 remains an object of discussion today. The relatively low risk associated with infection in children and the ambiguous conclusions when comparing the effects of vaccination and the transferred disease are grounds to believe that the ratio of risk and benefit of vaccination in this age group is more complex. One of the key arguments in favor of vaccinating healthy children is to protect them from the long-term effects of COVID-19. In addition, socially significant factors such as a decrease in the spread of infection, the cost of vaccine supplies or damage associated with the organization of quarantine measures (including the closure of schools and the transfer of the educational process to a remote format) should be taken into account. The dynamics of the situation requires a constant reassessment of the risk and benefits of specific prevention in children. The purpose of this literature review is to systematize objective data concerning the foreign experience of vaccination of children against COVID-19; arguments for and against vaccination, which complicate the decision-making on the issue under study at one level or another.

Keywords

• vaccination
• covid-19
• children