Barring any unforeseen developments in the next week, Israel’s Health Ministry has set a date to begin vaccinating all children ages 12-15 against the Coronavirus. The Ministry alerted the health care providers that they aim to begin the vaccination effort for this age group on June 6th and that the vaccinations will be available in the HMOs as well as in schools themselves. The vaccine is set to be accepted by Health Ministry officials who have been tasked with assessing the risks for this age group in the coming days. According to a report on N12 news site, the vaccination effort will mainly be taking place inside schools in order to arouse interest in the vaccines and create social peer pressure to take the vaccine. However, permission forms from parents will still be required. The second dose of the vaccines will be given at the HMOs. The Ministry is still waiting to receive findings from a committee that was tasked with researching the connection between the vaccines in young teenagers and inflammation of the heart muscle (Myocarditis) in the same age group as a result. While the US has already been vaccinating 12-15 year-olds, Israel is waiting to hear back more information regarding the 62 cases of children who have suffered myocarditis within 30 days of receiving the second vaccine. The majority of these cases occurred in young people aged 18-30. Last week it was publicized for the first time on Israeli media that there is no proof of a connection between the vaccine and those who suffered Myocarditis within a month of taking it. the research was conducted in a number of hospitals in Israel, among them was Tel Hashomer. The research showed that the number of cases where Myocarditis was found was very low compared to the number of people who receive the vaccine, and even those who did get it, the cases were very mild, and had there not been a heightened sensitivity to testing for the illness after the vaccine, it is likely that most of the cases would never have been discovered as the symptoms were so mild. The FDA expanded the emergency permit it gave to the Pfizer vaccine allowing it to be used on teenagers between the ages of 12-15 more than three weeks ago. The European agency overseeing vaccines BioNTech also gave its approval last week. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

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