Adolescents aged 12 to 17 will now be able to be vaccinated. The Moderna vaccine was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Friday 23 July. It is the second vaccine approved for adolescents of this age, after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was approved in May.

This new health measure includes the 27 member countries of the European Union. The European coordinator announced in a statement that "the EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has recommended that guidelines be provided for the Covid-19 Spikevax or Moderna vaccine to extend its use to children aged 12 to 17 years".

4 weeks apart

Moderna announced in May that its vaccine appears to be effective for adolescents under the age of 18. In fact, studies conducted in the laboratory on 3,732 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years have demonstrated this hypothesis. To be precise, the clinical trial was based on the recommendations of the CMUH (Committee on Medicinal Products for Human Use).

The Moderna vaccine is already administered to young people aged 18 and over. The age difference does not present any problem, the vaccine appears to have the same immune response. Therefore, the administration of the Moderna vaccine for adolescents aged 12-17 years will be the same as for people aged 18 years and over. Therefore, they will also receive 2 doses on the upper arm, in an interval of 4 weeks.

Same side effects

The form of the side effects in adolescents is the same as in adults. They may experience fever, headaches, digestive problems, fatigue, feelings of malaise, muscle or joint pain, etc. However, it is unable to detect rare or dangerous side effects due to the size of the samples observed.

Adolescents generally develop a less severe form of Covid-19 than adults. But they do contribute to the transmission of the virus. This is why, according to experts, their vaccination is necessary to help stop the spread of the epidemic. In addition, the variant is beginning to spread across the European continent.

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Photo Credit : LaPresse.ca

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