Professor Zachi Grossman, chairman of the Israel Pediatric Association, on Wednesday morning explained why he supports approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children ages 5-11 against coronavirus.
"The data shows us that when we examine the risk to children from the illness, versus the risk of the vaccine, even in conditions of low infection rates, the risk from the virus is greater than the risk of side effects from the vaccine," Prof. Grossman told 103 FM Radio.
With regards to myocarditis which may develop as a result of the vaccine, Prof. Grossman said, "Ninety-five percent experience a light case. I ask you, in light of this, what are the risks of long-term coronavirus?"
He estimates that, "Parents will be divided into three groups: A third will rush to vaccinate, a third will sit on the fence and see what happens, and the last third is a challenging third which we will need to deal with in the long term."
Regarding Wednesday evening's discussion, Professor Grossman said: "There are 80 experts and they have examined the material, as we have examined it, and they will tell us their opinions. At the end of the day there will be a vote. I thought that we should hold it as an open discussion. On such a sensitive issue, parents' trust is important, and the transparency - even if for us, the experts, it does not seem significant - for the public it is very significant, and therefore we need to do this as an open discussion."