This Country Won't Advise Distributing The COVID Vaccine To Children

Sweden’s health agency announced Thursday that it will not endorse the COVID-19 vaccine for children who are between the ages of 5 and 11.

According to the scientific online publication Our World In Data, nearly 73% of Sweden’s population is fully vaccinated. Health Agency official Britta Bjorkholm said in a news conference, however, that they don’t see a “clear benefit with vaccinating” children.

Bjorkholm clarified that at-risk children already have access to the vaccine. She also added that the health agency’s verdict on their recommendation could later be reexamined if another variant were to surface, or if the data changed.

On Wednesday, Sweden recorded over 40,000 new COVID cases.

On Oct. 29, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine to include children aged 5 to 11 years of age, finding that the immune response of kids was similar to people aged 16 to 25.