Less antigen and Kawasaki syndrome: infectious disease specialist - about vaccination of children

In January 2022, St. Petersburg should receive the Sputnik M drug to vaccinate adolescents aged 12-17 against CORONAVIRUS. According to Susanna Kharit, chief freelance specialist in immunoprophylaxis of the St. Petersburg HEALTH Committee, vaccination against coronavirus is important for children who have a hard time with the infection and can die from it. The risk group, according to her, includes children with chronic diseases. Since April 2020, seven children have died from covid-19 in St. Petersburg , all of them had severe pathologies.

However, the attitude of parents towards vaccinating teenagers against coronavirus is ambiguous. According to the SuperJob survey conducted in July 2021, 69% of respondents are not ready to vaccinate their children (according to Russian law, the decision to vaccinate children under 15 is made by parents).

RBC Petersburg publishes the opinion of a children's infectious disease specialist on how the Sputnik M vaccine works, what consequences of the coronavirus are dangerous for children, and why, in general, they have become more likely to get viral infections.

Valentin Kovalev, pediatric infectious disease specialist at Lakhta Clinic:

“When the vaccine appears, I will be in the forefront among those who want to vaccinate their children. At the beginning of the pandemic, we thought that the coronavirus was dangerous only for adults, but today's studies say that children can not only have a severe infection, but also have long-term "post-COVID" consequences.