Although vaccines have proved to be effective in their fight against Covid-19, there are many parents who are still concerned about getting their children vaccinated. So what exactly does the evidence say so far about the safety of these vaccines in children? The World Health Organisation’s Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan recently revealed that the WHO examines the dossiers that are provided by companies and provides the emergency use listing. However, many countries have licensed different vaccines for use in children based on their own regulatory agencies, after examining the data on safety and efficacy.“There are a number of vaccines, mRNA but also the viral vectored vaccines like AstraZeneca and J&J and the inactivated vaccines like Sinopharm and Sinovac and also Covaxin and Novavax, etc., that have been approved in different countries for different age groups. So the best thing is to follow the countries’ guidelines because all of them have looked very carefully and have made sure that the benefits of vaccination exceed the risks. And so far from the millions of children who’ve been vaccinated around the world, we know that the side effects are very rare. Of course, children can get some fevers, some pain at the site of injection, maybe some body ache which lasts for a day or two, just like adults do. Overall safety profile of these COVID vaccines has really been excellent,” Swaminathan said.
