By Louis Wertheimer, Y10
In early May, when the leading vaccine administration countries were opening up vaccinations for anyone over 16, parents started to wonder when their own children aged under 16 could get their doses.
The first major pharmaceutical company to come forward with their preliminary results for children aged 12-15 was the American giant Pfizer, with its vaccine developed with the German pharmaceutical company Biontech. The original numbers showed that 100% of all children (12-15) who got inoculated with the covid vaccine did not catch the virus.
As soon as the numbers were released, the CDC and FDA both started to work on the approval of the vaccine for children, and according to officials are ready to approve its use this upcoming week. For children aged under 12, a new, less concentrated vaccine is being developed, as the current dose might be too strong for younger bodies to handle without getting infected by the virus.
So when do we younger high schoolers expect to get vaccinated? It has been no secret that the vaccine rollout here in Switzerland has been lengthy and slow, with the government preferring to give free tests to every citizen than to buy more doses of the vaccines, including the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
I would predict that high schoolers will be able to get their covid-19 vaccine before the start of the next school year, but will not get it before the end of this school year.
