ドイツ（Germany 🇩🇪）： STIKO opposes inoculating teens
２０２１年８月４日（Wed.）14:00UP ： 二日ほど前のドイツからのニュースでは、若者へのワクチン接種を推奨するとのドイツ政府の方針が伝えられていましたが、本日のニュースでは若者への接種に反対する専門家（団体）の話題が揚げられています。（ニュースソース： DWーDE ８月３日発 ）
＜原文の一部＞
Germany: Top vaccine advisory body STIKO opposes inoculating teens
The expert body, which advises the German government on vaccines, does not recommend inoculating teens. The announcement places it at loggerheads with German politicians.
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STIKO experts and lawmakers disagree over whether children and teens should get vaccinated
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The head of Germany's Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) has again defended the advisory group's decision to not endorse the vaccination of teens. "We cannot issue a blanket recommendation as long as we are lacking the necessary [medical] data," Thomas Mertens recently said in an interview.
So far, he said, there was insufficient data regarding potential health issues linked to vaccinating 12 to 17-year-olds. Mertens added that STIKO may eventually change its view and endorse teen vaccinations. But it would not do so, he said, because politicians are calling for this step.
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STIKO head Thomas Mertens is a virologist
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Mertens instead urges as many 18 to 59-year-olds as possible to get the jab. This, he said, would significantly reduce the severity of the fourth coronavirus infection wave. "Vaccinating children may garner more media attention, but will prove less effective from an epidemiological perspective."
This is not the first time the advisory body and German lawmakers have disagreed over how to handle the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier in the spring, STIKO said the Astra-Zeneca vaccine ought to be administered only to certain age groups. It similarly recommended administering the Johnson&Johnson vaccine to older cohorts only. German politicians, however, approved the vaccine for younger people as well.
What is STIKO?
The advisory body has been around for nearly 50 years. STIKO was set up in 1972 as a branch of the federal health agency, a research institute dissolved in 1994. The committee was then moved to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's disease control and prevention agency.
The RKI is part of the federal Health Ministry, which is led by Health Minister Jens Spahn of the governing conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Though formally independent, the body is therefore not entirely free from political pressure or influence.
STIKO makes its own procedural rules in consultation with the Health Ministry and was last revised in 1994. It states that STIKO should carry out "medical-epidemiological cost-benefit analyses and focus on matters of practical implementation" on the basis of the latest scientific findings.
The body also only deals with vaccines that have already been approved. The institution responsible for authorizing vaccines is the Paul Ehrlich Institute.
STIKO disseminates its advisory guidelines via its epidemiological bulletin. Last published on July 8, it recommends inoculating children and teens between the ages of 12 and 17 only in rare exceptions. It said vaccinations within this group are only advised in the cases of pre-existing medical conditions, or if vulnerable family members cannot get vaccinated due to medical reasons.
STIKO, however, added that children and teens may nevertheless get the jab if their parents approve, provided everyone has been briefed on and accepted the potential risk involved.
（注： 以下、転載省略。 原文サイトは下記のリンクへ ）
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この12〜17歳の若者への接種に反対する理由は、十分な医学的な情報が得られていないところにあると伝えられています。
私見ですが、十分な実績データ等が集まるまでは、国としての若者への接種推奨を一旦取り下げるべきでしょう。但し、親御さんの中には我が子への接種を希望する人もかなり存在すると思いますので、希望者には対応するスタンスで良いのではないでしょうか。
何日か前のデンマーク発の話題で、妊婦や授乳している女性への接種を推奨する方針にデンマーク（DK）が転換したと伝えられていますが、これと同じ進め方で良いと思います。他の諸国での実績等が積み上がって安全が確認出来たからDKは方針転換したのです。
こうしたステップを踏まずに、単にメリットがデメリットよりも勝るから推奨すると言う考えは、全体主義的発想だと思います。
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