Critics call for reforms of German vaccine panel as COVID cases rise | World news

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FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Critics call on Germany’s Vaccine Advisory Board to revisit how it assesses COVID-19 injections as the nation strives to contain growing infections and its leader is criticized for rescinding issue of the safety of childhood immunizations.

The 18-person appointed panel, known as STIKO, last week recommended vaccinations for a limited number of children, including those at risk of developing severe COVID-19, but failed to achieve a general recommendation for ages 5 to 11.

This limited approval, combined with the fact that STIKO took weeks to align with German regional health ministers expanding eligibility for booster injections from September, fueled a debate on the need to reorganize the group of health workers. experts to speed up decisions to keep pace with the coronavirus.

In recent weeks, Germany has been among the worst-affected countries in Western Europe, with infection rates among school-aged children twice the rate for all ages.

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Critics say STIKO’s rigorous standards on the data it analyzes, normally seen as a force that has earned it a solid reputation since its establishment in 1972 by the Department of Health, mean it may be behind schedule. this pandemic.

“STIKO’s work is strongly evidence-based. This normally makes sense, but at the moment this is why STIKO often lags behind the latest developments, ”said Carsten Watzl, professor at the University of Dortmund and general secretary of the German company. ‘immunology.

STIKO chairman Thomas Mertens also drew criticism from the pediatrician association this month when he said in a newspaper interview, after the European medicines regulator’s approval, that he wouldn’t vaccinate a seven-year-old if he had one.

Mertens called the quality of data on side effects in millions of young children vaccinated in the United States since early November as poor, expressing concern about the uncertainty of vaccination risks.

In an interview given Thursday to one of Germany’s main evening news broadcasts, Heute Journal by broadcaster ZDF, the presenter asked if it was still appropriate for him to take on such responsibilities, after asking him about the caution STIKO regarding pediatric vaccinations and boosters.

Mertens told broadcaster Welt on Friday that his only mistake was probably bringing up a personal point of view in public.

The German Institute of Infectious Diseases Robert Koch, with which STIKO is associated, declined to comment on the reviews.

The European Medicines Agency approved the vaccine for children on November 25. She said Thursday that there had been no safety concerns for the more than 5 million American children who have received at least one vaccine.

The EU’s deployment began on Monday, although countries were pursuing different strategies and Germany was not alone in a slower or more limited deployment. Spain, Italy, Austria and Denmark are among the countries which encourage parents to immunize all their children over five years old.

STIKO admitted that a large portion of the 5 to 11-year-old group would eventually become infected, but said healthy children were at low risk of serious illness.

The German expert group has remained within its remit to consider only individual medical benefits and largely ignore the fallout from school closures as well as the role of children in transmitting the virus to others in a country where almost 20% of adults have not had a double-breasted lesson.

Watzl said this view was too narrow. “STIKO should have been strengthened at the start of the pandemic, a STIKO pandemic if you will. It could be the same people but with more resources and maybe with a different set of considerations,” he said. to Reuters.

STIKO’s high reputation among parents and pediatricians now means that the vaccination campaign for young people in Germany, also launched on Monday, could get off to a smooth start.

“A broad recommendation from STIKO would undoubtedly have resulted in a greater willingness to vaccinate among parents,” said Leif Erik Sander, vaccine researcher at Charite in Berlin, Germany’s largest teaching hospital.

“The latest decision, however, will likely spark debate as the recommendations in other countries were broader.”

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Keith Weir and Alison Williams)

Copyright 2021 Thomson Reuters.

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