Leading virologist urges booster Covid vaccine for children
Children aged 5 to 11 should get a booster dose as the immunity from two doses of vaccines is not enough, a top virologist said, citing a yet-to-be-published study.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Dr Yong Poovorawan talked about the study on administering vaccines to children aged 5 to 11 by Chulalongkorn University’s Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology.
He highlighted seven points from the study:
1. Children who received the Sinovac vaccine as the first dose, followed by the Pfizer vaccine a month later had similar immunity as children who had received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine at two-month intervals.
Yong explained the results of this formula to the higher spike in immunoglobulin G as compared to the Pfizer formula, but the overall immunity offered by the Pfizer formula is higher.
2. The interval between doses of the Sinovac-Pfizer formula is four weeks while the interval between Pfizer doses is eight weeks.
He explained that the immunity would be higher if the interval were to be longer. He added that the immunity from the Sinovac-Pfizer formula with a one-month interval is effective quicker than the Pfizer formula with a two-month interval.
3. Children's bodies respond to immunity significantly better than adults.
4. Children aged 5 to 11 who received two doses of inactivated vaccines (Sinovac or Sinopharm) and Pfizer vaccine as the booster dose got the same high immunity as adults and the immunity is enough to protect against the Omicron variant.
5. Children who received two doses of Sinovac got higher immunity than children who received two doses of Sinopharm vaccines, the same result as in the study with adults.
6. According to past information, two doses of any vaccine are not enough so the booster dose might be necessary.
7. Administering inactivated vaccines is a way of reducing the number of mRNA vaccine doses while side-effects from mRNA vaccines are likely to occur in the second or third doses more than in the first dose.
Yong said that the study would be completed soon, as the centre is waiting for lab results. It will be published in an international journal later.
