As the country comes down from a fourth coronavirus wave, Israeli officials plan to unleash the next vaccination campaign for 5 to 11 years olds. Parents will be expected to vaccinate their children, which has already seen major backlash and protests from those who are more cautious and less trusting of the institutions concerned.
For the parents who choose to vaccinate, children will be able to receive the vaccine from healthcare centers and schools. The vaccine will also come in two doses and are one-third the amount of the adult Pfizer dose. They are recommended to be given three weeks apart. The campaign approval comes days after the FDA deemed the vaccine was safe for youth. They tested 2,268 children and found a 91% effective rate for preventing symptoms of the COVID-19 virus. After studying 3,100 vaccinated children, they concluded that the vaccine is safe.
Nachum Ash, Director General of the Ministry of Health, said that “we want to start this as soon as possible” and that Israel was waiting for the arrival of the new doses to start administering the vaccine. So far, at least 4 million Israelis have received the third booster shot, 6.2 million have received one dose and 5.7 million received two doses.
