Pediatricians, pediatric specialist societies, and patient associations, including the German Childhood Cancer Foundation, the German Cystic Fibrosis Association, the Children’s Network, and the German Heart Foundation, criticize society’s treatment of chronically ill children and adolescents and the lack of support in the corona pandemic.
Isolation of this particularly vulnerable group leads accordingly to a not age-adequate development with disturbance of the psychosocial and socio-legal aspects, which would find also too little consideration, explains the Secretary-General of the German Academy for child and youth medicine (DAKJ), Hans-Iko Huppertz among other experts in the pediatric medicine. Children would only come through the pandemic so well because their parents and caregivers would adequately protect them from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Fear of negative health effects is especially high among those affected and their families.
For this reason, there is also criticism of the Corona vaccine regulation, which promotes the social exclusion of the unvaccinated, which includes children under 16 years of age, because there is no vaccine for them (yet). Vaccine licensure for all children under 16 is still in the works and should be urgently and quickly pursued, according to experts. But vaccination of parents of chronically ill children along with accompanying persons would also have to be a priority to protect all children at risk of health problems, the associations demand. This includes an adaptation of the current Corona vaccination regulation to the recommendations of the Standing Commission on Vaccination (STIKO).
Parents and caregivers would also like to see further supportive measures that go beyond home office support measures and ways to extend children’s sick days.
Source: Aerzteblatt