COVID-19 vaccine
COVID-19 vaccineiStock

The World Health Organization has apparently dropped its recommendation that children not be vaccinated against the coronavirus, hours after Facebook censored posts with the WHO recommendation.

On Monday, the WHO released its updated guidelines regarding vaccinations for SARS-COVID-2.

In its guidelines, the WHO wrote that children should not receive COVID vaccinations for the time being, while recommending that most people over 18 receive the shot.

“Children should not be vaccinated for the moment,” the WHO wrote. “There is not yet enough evidence on the use of vaccines against COVID-19 in children to make recommendations for children to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Children and adolescents tend to have milder disease compared to adults. However, children should continue to have the recommended childhood vaccines.”

After the update was posted to the WHO’s website, however, social media giant Facebook began removing comments which referenced the WHO recommendation, or even included screenshots of the WHO page with the recommendation visible.

“Your comment goes against our Community Standards on spam,” Facebook wrote regarding the censored posts.

“No one else can see your comment. We have these standards to prevent things like false advertising, fraud and security breaches.”

By Tuesday, the WHO had revised its updated guidelines, dropping the recommendation against vaccinating children for COVID, and instead saying that a panel of experts had found the vaccine “suitable for use” by children over the age of 12.

The revised guidelines offer no specific recommendation regarding vaccinating children, and said the WHO “will update its recommendations when the evidence or epidemiological situation warrants a change in policy.”