Despite having little data as to the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on children under the age of 12, the Health Ministry announced on Tuesday that select youth who are at risk of developing severe COVID-19 will now be able to get vaccinated.
“Since we never immunized children this age and we decided on a special dose – 10 micrograms instead of 30 mcg. – we still don’t know,” Dr. Doron Dushnitzky, a pediatric specialist with Leumit Health Services and a member of the Midaat Association for Informed Health, told The Jerusalem Post.
Specifically, the ministry said that “there are special situations in which vaccination can be considered for children” between the ages of five and 11, adding that the general vaccination of younger kids “is not recommended at this time” and that the vaccines should be limited to those “who are at maximum risk” of serious disease or even death.
The children who will be eligible for vaccination include those who are severely obese with a BMI of 99% for their age and sex, those with neuro-developmental disorders such as seizures and congenital syndromes, severe chronic lung disease, severe immunosuppression, cancer, heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and those with sickle cell anemia.
Dushnitzky said that he does not expect a surge of requests to get inoculated by this cohort and that each request, at least at the beginning, will need to receive approval from a committee co-staffed by representatives of the health funds and the Health Ministry, as well as from a parent.
“Not every situation will be approved,” he stressed.
The decision to move forward with vaccinating youth is because of the rapid surge in cases among all age groups in recent weeks due to the Delta variant and that there is concern those certain children could become severely ill.
This is despite the fact that there are only three children who were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Tuesday morning, the ministry reported.
“Consider those children who have had organ transplants or have serious lung disease and morbid obesity and other risk factors that make the children in danger from COVID,” Dushnitzky said. “It is like the mirror side of the elderly in the senior homes who are very prone to serious disease.”
This is not the first time that Israel made such a bold move ahead of any approvals by the US Food and Drug Administration or the European Medicines Agency. Beginning as early as February 2021, the Health Ministry inoculated dozens of 12- to 16-year-olds that it felt were at risk for serious COVID, despite the vaccine not yet receiving approval for this age cohort.
Ultimately, about 1,000 teens under 16 were vaccinated during this campaign.
Israel began vaccinated youth 12-15 in the beginning of June, but then vaccination was only recommended for those young teens who were at high risk for severe disease, lived with someone at high risk or were planning to travel. Later in the month, after several school outbreaks, the Health Ministry began strongly recommending all teens get the jab.
So far, 41% of people under the age of 20 have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Some 154,600 kids under the age of 12 have caught coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
“Many look at us with reverence or expectations and even adopt some of our bold decisions,” Dushnitzky said in response to a question about whether or not Israel might expect some international pushback for making this move. “My guess is that such a thing happening [in Israel] will help progress children receiving vaccines in other places.”
Pfizer began a small clinical trial to test its vaccine in children under 12 in March 2021, but results are only expected in the second half of the year. The Moderna vaccine is not yet approved for people under the age of 18. That company is also running clinical trials for teens and pre-teens.
Dushnitzky stressed that he does not believe the Health Ministry will be quick to generally lower the age for vaccination until such a decision receives regulatory approval.
“It would be very surprising for me if the Health Ministry spearheads itself into doing such a thing,” he said.