In children and adolescents, severe courses of a corona infection are rather unlikely. A documentary focuses on the risks of vaccination. And debates start before the start.
Vienna / Berlin – A new documentary film from Austria wants to draw attention to the possible risks of corona vaccinations for children and adolescents. A much-discussed trailer for “Another Freedom” has been on YouTube since the weekend, in which actor Til Schweiger also has a say.
“This virus is absolutely harmless for children”, a vaccination with its as yet unknown long-term consequences is much more dangerous in comparison, Schweiger is quoted in the six-minute clip for the film by Patricia Marchart and Georg Sabransky.
Schweiger did not comment on this when asked by his PR agent. The Austrian actress Nina Proll also speaks out in the video strictly against a vaccination.
Differentiated view from paediatricians
With today’s data, paediatricians see the topic as differentiated. Jörg Dötsch, Director of the Clinic for Children and Adolescent Medicine at the University Clinic in Cologne, spoke out on Monday against an off-label vaccination of children under 12 with previous illnesses. Off label means that there is no approval for this age group. “We have almost 17 million adults who have not been vaccinated first, that’s the problem,” he said at a press briefing from the Science Media Center (SMC). “Adults have a duty to help protect people who cannot be vaccinated and who are ultimately at risk.”
The documentary film is important because it contributes to differentiated thinking, says the Austrian pediatrician Reinhold Kerbl, who can be seen in the trailer. He would advise a 16-year-old to have a vaccination, but more for practical and social reasons. “But I would say yes because I would wish this 16-year-old a normal life as possible,” Kerbl said in the clip.
According to the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Braunschweig, the risk that children infected with the Sars-Cov-2 virus will have to go to hospital has so far been low. For 0 to 4 year olds, it is 2 to 4 percent, said Berit Lange, head of clinical epidemiology, at the SMC briefing on Monday. For older people up to 15 years it is 0.5 percent and then increases again a little.
The risk that children and adolescents develop very severe disease, become intensive care and die is considered to be very low in Germany. According to data from the Robert Koch Institute, 23 deaths among under 20-year-olds have been known since the beginning of the pandemic, the vast majority of which had previous illnesses. In total, more than 92,000 Covid deaths have been registered in Germany so far. dpa
