There is a vaccination dispute among parents in the Berlin district of Kladow. The reason for this is a vaccination campaign launched by some parents and a pediatrician. The target group of the vaccination campaign are children between the ages of five and eleven. The general parents’ representative of a Berlin school passed the doctor’s offer on to all parents in a letter. Because the Standing Vaccination Committee has not yet issued a vaccination recommendation for children under the age of twelve, some parents consider the current approach taken by the Parents’ Association to be wrong. The Stiko chairman was asked Thursday if he was currently vaccinating his own seven-year-old child. Mertens had replied: “I would probably not have it vaccinated now.” Apart from the data from the registration study, there is “no data” on the tolerance of the vaccine in the group of five to eleven year olds. According to Mertens, current publications also show that statements about long-term damage are hardly possible.
The current information letter from the parent representatives states that “quite a few parents may have made a decision in favor of vaccination”, “but have not yet found a way to do this. In the spirit of our joint efforts since March 2020 to do everything possible to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pathogen, we as the GEV board are very pleased to be able to inform you about a voluntary vaccination offer initiated by our parents in the Kladower area . “The action should take place on Sunday. The letter goes on to say: “With a well-organized and fluid process, up to 100 children can be vaccinated in the aforementioned time frames. Appropriate amounts of vaccine are available. It is important that you agree with your child that the vaccination should be carried out on that day; in technical jargon this means willing / ready to be vaccinated ”.
Just under five minutes per child for anamnesis, information and vaccination
The campaign met with massive rejection from some of the parents who were contacted. “It is incredible to me that a pediatrician from Kladow offers to vaccinate children between the ages of five and eleven with a third of an adult dose of the BioNTech / Pfizer Cominarry vaccine, despite the lack of a recommendation from Stiko,” says a father of the Berliner Zeitung. He received the information sent by the parent representatives about “a voluntary vaccination offer for children from five to eleven years” and made it available to the Berliner Zeitung. For fear of possible hostility towards his children, he wants to remain anonymous. The name is known to the editors.
In an interview with the Berliner Zeitung, the man continues: “With 100 children, there would be just under five minutes left for anamnesis, clarification, documentation of the education and vaccination. What happens in the event of immediate severe vaccination reactions or vaccination intolerance that vaccination with the “adult vaccine” can cause? “And further:” In my opinion, the fact that an adult vaccine should be vaccinated does not fall under off-label use, as an association of paediatricians for older children has considered it to be admissible. “There is no recommendation from the STIKO,” nevertheless this doctor wants to vaccinate these young children and the board of directors of the general parent association GEV welcomes this vaccination offer and promotes it to the Primary school parents, ”the man continues. He was “appalled by so much carelessness”.
General parent representatives: “We do not give any vaccination recommendations”
At the request of the Berliner Zeitung, the parent representatives announced on Saturday: “The infection rate among children is still very high in Germany and also in Berlin. The subject of vaccination for children between the ages of five and twelve has therefore occupied a large part of parenting for a long time. “Many parents had” signaled that they were waiting for the children’s vaccine against Corona from BioNTech / Pfizer, the last week of has been approved by the European Medicines Agency EMA “. In principle, “according to the EMA decision, every child can be vaccinated”.
In the letter sent to the parents, which is available to the editorial staff of the Berliner Zeitung, it is said that they are informing “about a voluntary vaccination offer initiated by our parents”. In response to a request on Saturday, the parent representatives announced that they had “decided to forward a corresponding voluntary vaccination offer from a resident pediatrician to the parents for information”. It was “not a vaccination campaign initiated by the GEV board. We emphasize that we have only passed on information to inform parents who would like to have their child vaccinated, where this is possible. We do not give any vaccination recommendations. This is the sole decision of the parents ”.