The World Health Organisation’s top vaccines expert says that immunising children against the coronavirus is not a high priority given the extremely limited global supply of vaccines. Dr Kate O’Brien says vaccinating children is not a priority from a WHO perspective, even as increasing numbers of rich countries authorise their COVID-19 shots for teenagers and children. O’Brien says since children are not typically at risk of getting severely ill or dying from COVID-19, vaccinating them during the pandemic is mostly aimed at stopping transmission, rather than protecting them from disease.
Canada, the US and the European Union have all recently approved some COVID-19 vaccines for children age 12 to 15 as they approach their vaccination targets for adults. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has previously urged rich countries to donate their COVID-19 shots to poor countries rather than immunise their adolescents and children. Fewer than 1% of COVID-19 vaccines…