Global Pediatric Pulmonology Alliance (GPPA) proposal for COVID-19 vaccination in children

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains a global epidemic.As of August 18,2021,the number of reported cases has exceeded 207 million globally,with more than 4.3 million deaths.COVID-19 has brought devastating losses to human society.The overall crude mortality rate is 1-3％.Although pediatric deaths from COVID-19 are rare,they do occur,as over 9,000 children have died from COVID-19 globally to date [1].With the gradual and broad application of COVID-19 vaccines around the world,the rising propor-tion of cases among children and unvaccinated young adults demands attention.According to World Health Organiza-tion surveillance data,the proportion of children reported to have COVID-19 has increased.Between January 2020 and July 2021,the percentage of cases that occurred among children less than 5 years of age doubled,from 1％ to 2％,and cases among 5-14 years more than tripled,from 2.5 to 8.7％.Between the initial stage of COVID-19 and the launch of vaccination efforts,children's COVID-19 infections were primarily family based,having been transmitted from adult to child.Recent variants,including the delta variant,appear to be transmitted more commonly in the young [2].Wide-spread adult vaccination with an increase in the proportion of childhood cases suggests that pediatric cases may become an important and growing source of COVID-19 infection in communities if children remain unvaccinated.