Journal article : Review
Should children be vaccinated against COVID-19?
- Abstract:
- Whether all children under 12 years of age should be vaccinated against COVID-19 remains an ongoing debate. The relatively low risk posed by acute COVID-19 in children, and uncertainty about the relative harms from vaccination and disease mean that the balance of risk and benefit of vaccination in this age group is more complex. One of the key arguments for vaccinating healthy children is to protect them from long-term consequences. Other considerations include population-level factors, such as reducing community transmission, vaccine supply, cost, and the avoidance of quarantine, school closures and other lockdown measures. The emergence of new variants of concern necessitates continual re-evaluation of the risks and benefits. In this review, we do not argue for or against vaccinating children against COVID-19 but rather outline the points to consider and highlight the complexity of policy decisions on COVID-19 vaccination in this age group.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
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-
(Preview, Accepted manuscript, 301.7KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1136/archdischild-2021-323040
Authors
- Publisher:
- BMJ Publishing Group
- Journal:
- Archives of Disease in Childhood More from this journal
- Volume:
- 107
- Issue:
- 3
- Article number:
- e1
- Place of publication:
- England
- Publication date:
- 2021-11-03
- Acceptance date:
- 2021-10-13
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1468-2044
- ISSN:
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0003-9888
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Subtype:
-
Review
- Pubs id:
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1207812
- Local pid:
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pubs:1207812
- Deposit date:
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2021-11-17
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Zimmerman et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. This article is made freely available for use in accordance with BMJ’s website terms and conditions for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained.
- Notes:
- This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available online from BMJ Publishing Group at: https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323040
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