Booster Jabs Not Urgent for Children: Pediatricians

TheIndonesia.co - The Indonesian Pediatric Society (IDAI) has recently recommended the Indonesian government to continue the focus of national booster rollout for senior citizens with pre-existing conditions and added booster jab is not an urgency for children.

Member of IDAI’s childhood immunization task force Soedjatmiko said recent data suggests that booster doses should be prioritized for the elderlies as they are more at risk to experience severe symptoms.

“As of now, double dose vaccine is sufficient for children. The evidence is that severe illnesses and deaths among children are low compared to the elders at 47.5 percent,” Soedjatmiko said on Monday, July 18, as reported by Antara.

According to him, the highest morbidity rate is found among people aged 31 to 45 at 28.9 percent while the highest mortality rate (47.5 percent) is found in older adults aged 60 and over. And based on this finding, the pediatrician suggested the booster rollout to be focused on senior citizens.

In addition, Soedjatmiko said the number of resources to administer booster jabs for children is limited as a massive number of health workers are deployed for the COVID-19 vaccination rollout as well as other immunization programs.

The IDAI member added that up until now, no vaccine manufacturer has published safety and immunogenicity results from clinical trial on booster doses for children aged six and above.

As of Monday, 201,966,816 people in Indonesia have received the first dose of vaccination, and 169,582,051 have been fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, only 53,126,957 people have received their booster shots.