COVID-19 vaccination for children: may be necessary for the full eradication of the disease

After years of anti-vaccination campaigns,¹ a small measles pandemic occurred in Europe in 2017, due to suboptimal vaccination coverage in the population (i.e., <80%). In that year, >15,000 cases of measles were reported, in particular in Romania, Italy, and Greece, especially among children. Due to this lack of trust and to ineffective vaccination schedules, at least 50 (preventable) deaths occurred in this age range.²

These numbers may appear very limited in comparison to the dramatic morbidity and death toll related to COVID-19 pandemic, but in some way this dangerous precedent may permit us to forecast what could happen in the next months in a world with children not vaccinated against COVID-19.

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