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COVID jabs for kids: they’re safe and they work — so why is uptake so patchy?

Some countries are now offering COVID vaccines for children as young as six months. Nature looks at how effective they are and why more kids haven’t had them.
  1. Smriti Mallapaty
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People in brightly coloured circus costumes and face masks watch as a young girl is given a COVID-19 vaccine shot into her arm

A girl receives a COVID-19 vaccination at a mall in the Philippines in February, on the first day of eligibility for children aged 5–11. Credit: Rouelle Umali/Xinhua/eyevine

It was more than a year after adults began receiving COVID-19 vaccinations that regulators approved the jabs for children. The gap left some parents anxious to protect their kids, and others wondering about the vaccines’ safety and effectiveness.

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Nature 610, 246-248 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03203-8

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