Many governments are not giving children experimental Covid-19 vaccines.
QUICK FACTS:
- In Mexico, the president says he won’t be held hostage by vaccine makers and that there are no plans to inoculate under-18s except those at risk, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
- President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has accused pharmaceutical companies of wanting to scare countries into buying more vaccines. “We’re not going to be hostage to that,” he said.
- Rollouts in any parts of Africa are “going so slowly that vaccinating children is a distant ambition,” WSJ reports, most countries in sub-Saharan Africa having “little choice about whether to vaccinate children because their rollouts are going so slowly.”
- Australia and New Zealand have also withheld approval of the experimental drug for younger children.
- Australia’s chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, recently explained that Australia would wait to see what happens in the U.S. before committing to vaccinating younger children, notes WSJ.
- Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, said vaccination of children 5 to 11 would begin only after regulators review Pfizer’s application for that age group.
- Israel has waited until the U.S. approved inoculating children under 12 before starting discussions on the matter.
- Russia has also not yet authorized use of the vaccine for individuals under 18.
COUNTRIES NOT VAXXING YOUNG CHILDREN—WSJ:
- Mexico
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Japan
- Israel
- Russia
- African Countries
Jon Fleetwood is Managing Editor for American Faith and author of “An American Revival: Why American Christianity Is Failing & How to Fix It.“
