Safety and Efficacy of Covid-19 Vaccine in Children less than 12 Years of Age: a Scoping Review

The continuous evolving and the emerging of different SARS-CoV2 strains making it difficult to control the pandemic even with vaccines availability. COVID-19 infection has been reported in children with different ages ranging from 1 day to 15 years. This age group necessitate more attention particularly with the reported relative increase in the incidence of myocarditis and its possible correlation to COVID-19 vaccines. Data assessing efficacy and safety of the existing CoVid-19 vaccines are very limited in this age group and mostly were reported from adult and adolescent studies. This study aimed to summarize and review all researches published from January 2020 to December 2021 assessing the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine among children and adolescents. As a conclusion of this review, more studies are needed, especially phase-3 trials with adequate follow up period to provide more data on vaccine safety and efficacy. Although the current available information recommend administration of vaccination in this age group, as well it showed reduction in severity of COVID-19 infection and its related hospitalization, with no severe side effects re reported to be different from adult population.