frankfurt critics are calling on germanys vaccine advisory panel to overhaul the way it evaluates covid19 shots as the nation struggles to tame soaring infections and as its chief comes under fire for questioning the safety of inoculating children the panel of 18 appointees known as stiko last week recommended vaccinations for limited numbers of children including those at risk of developing severe covid19 but stopped short of a blanket recommendation for 511 year olds that limited approval combined with stiko taking weeks to fall into line with germanys regional health ministers widening the eligibility for booster shots from september has stoked a debate whether the expert panel needs to be reorganised to speed up decisions to keep up with the of pace of the coronavirus in recent weeks germany has been among the worsthit countries in western europe with infection rates among schoolage children twice as high as the allage rate critics say stikos exacting standards on the data it analyses normally seen as a strength which has earned it a strong reputation since it was set up in 1972 by the health ministry mean it can be behind the curve in this pandemic stikos work is highly evidencebased that normally makes sense but at the moment it the reason why stiko is often falling behind the latest developments said carsten watzl a professor at dortmund university and secretary general of the german immunology society stiko chairman thomas mertens sparked also criticism from the association of paediatricians this month when he said in a newspaper interview after the eu drug regulators approval he would not get a sevenyearold child inoculated if he had one mertens dismissed as low the quality of data on any side effects in millions of younger children vaccinated in the united states since early november expressing concerns over an uncertainty of vaccination risksmedical benefits in an interview on thursday on one of germanys main evening news programmes heute journal by broadcaster zdf the presenter asked whether it was still appropriate for him to hold such responsibilities after questioning him on stikos caution with regard to paediatric vaccinations and the boosters on friday mertens told broadcaster welt his only mistake had likely been to mention a personal view in public germanys infectious disease body robert koch institute with which stiko is associated declined to comment on any of the criticism the european medicines agency approved the shot for children on nov 25 it said on thursday that there had been no safety concerns over the more than 5 million us children who have received at least one shot the eu rollout got under way on monday although countries were pursuing different strategies and germany is not alone in a slower or more limited deployment spain italy austria and denmark are among the countries encouraging parents to have all their over fives inoculated stiko has conceded that a large proportion in the 511 group will eventually be infected but has said that healthy children were at a