Following the intensive campaign to encourage Portuguese parents to vaccinate their 5-11 year olds, less than half appear to have been convinced.
Parents’ doubts as to the real need to submit such young children for new technology (mRNA) jabs have been clear from the outset (click here).
Medical specialists too remain deeply divided (click here).
Thus, when schools return tomorrow after extended Christmas/ New Year holidays, “just 45% will have protection” (the words of SIC television news/ DGS).
To be fair, many would argue that the children already have protection, in the form of their robust immune systems; the fact most of them have already been in contact with the virus – and that SARS-CoV-2 almost invariably leaves them unaffected.
Authorities won’t be ‘delighted’ with today’s ‘final balance’, but they will no doubt continue to insist that vaccinations for younger age groups are necessary (irrespective of the fact that the current vaccines were not formulated to combat the dominant variant in circulation click here).
Right now, the unvaccinated 55% will not face discrimination when it comes to rules on isolation (click here).
How long this lasts, whether it will even continue once the elections are over, is unclear (click here).
