One truth of having kids is the years are short but the days are long, though pandemic years may be an exception. And if you have kids aged between five and 11, you have spent the past two weeks watching American kids get vaccinated while yours wait. For parents, the pandemic has been hard.
But the next step is coming, and soon. Multiple sources tell the Star that Health Canada approval of the Pfizer vaccine for five-to-11-year-olds will be announced Friday; deliveries of approximately three million doses will follow, which is enough for a first dose for every eligible Canadian child. An exact timeline is hard to discern, but public officials have said needles could go into arms before the end of November. It’s going to happen.
For most parents, it will be a relief. The safety data painstakingly released by the American FDA was already reassuring. The plans from public health have been filed. Hopefully, Ontario will not repeat past vaccination mistakes and will prioritize the most at-risk areas, and have a coherent booking system. Hopefully, the education campaigns that are already ongoing will help.
And hopefully, enough parents decide to protect their kids, and in so doing eliminate a significant reservoir of Canada’s unvaccinated population. Elementary schools are far and away the leading source of identified COVID-19 outbreaks in Ontario. This will help.
The pandemic has been a challenge for so many, but parents have that extra responsibility. Without easy access to outdoor space, or the insulation of money, or a million other variables, it was harder. And now, parents with children under 12 will be among the last to be able to make their choices as a fully vaccinated family.
And to be clear, this isn’t a finish line. Chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore told an Ottawa radio station Wednesday the interval between the two doses will be eight weeks, matching the recommendation for adults, instead of the American recommendation of three weeks. Which means even if you have a five-to-11-year-old — and I have two, ages six and 10 — your child will not be double vaccinated until late January, at the earliest. If you were hoping for fully vaccinated kids at Christmas, it’s not happening.
Trials did indicate that a first dose provoked a strong immune response in children: a 91.4 per cent efficacy against infection over a period of months with children who were back in school, and in other congregate settings, such as sports and after-school activities.
But still, the wait isn’t over. Maybe you’re watching the United States because it’s Canada’s favourite TV show, and as harrowing and gruesome as it might be, you may know you can walk into an American pharmacy, give a last name and date of birth, and walk out with a dose of Pfizer for your kids.
But besides the fact that Canada comparing itself to our southern neighbours is a very dangerous game, it’s just not the same. The Pfizer data was submitted to the U.S.’s Food and Drug Administration on Sept. 28; it was submitted to Health Canada Oct. 18. The United States has buying power that Canada does not.
Still, it’s OK to be a Canadian parent who worries about COVID getting into the house after you worked so hard to keep it out, or have your life disrupted by every sniffle, or to put a kid in virtual school with a teacher who vanishes after a month. We should note, parents with kids who are under five will be the ones left behind for a time now, wondering if every cough is COVID, whether the colds that are recirculating are just colds, and waiting for tests to get the kid back into daycare. A lot of a pandemic is how lucky you are when it arrives, in about a hundred different ways.
Impatience, frustration and emotion is valid, for parents. But just know that this is almost as good as it gets. We don’t know everything yet. But what we know, based on the vaccine’s safety trials, is tremendous.
“In the world of vaccines, this is one of the safest vaccines, given how many times it’s been given, and how closely we’re monitoring its safety, effectiveness and tolerability,” says Dr. Anne Pham-Huy, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Ottawa’s CHEO Hospital, and the chair of Immunize Canada.
“They saw the same types of side effects that we saw in teenagers and in adults — sore arm, pain at the site, a minority had fever and aches. They were minor, they were expected, they were self-limited.
“It’s reassuring to me, the safety information I have seen in the trial (which was not designed to catch extremely rare events). I am also cautious and I definitely advocate that we continue to monitor this very closely, like with all vaccines. But (almost all) vaccine side-effects happen within two months. They don’t happen five years down the road, or 15 years down the road. Trials continue to monitor immunogenicity and immune protection and efficacy; they’re not so much for safety. We expect safety signals to occur shortly after the administration of the vaccine.
“And even with a third of a dose (children) exhibited a fantastic immune response, which we expect can be extrapolated to efficacy as well, based on the reaction of the older population, of older kids. So it’s reassuring from that aspect.”
Pham-Huy has a nine-year-old, and the data convinced her this was safe.
And while it was a wait, this happened fast. The U.S. was more than two weeks ahead. Israel only approved the vaccine last week, and hasn’t announced a start date for vaccination yet. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have authorized the five-to-11 vaccine for emergency use. On a global scale, Canada has moved quickly. And with a high expected uptake from a country that is seen as reasonable, that will be an encouraging signal to the world, too.
There will be probably be some bumps in the rush to register. There will be bumps in how this works. But in a world still full of this virus, soon Canadian parents will be able to better protect their kids. This has been hard, but it can get easier. And this will be a start.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMipAFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVzdGFyLmNvbS9vcGluaW9uL3N0YXItY29sdW1uaXN0cy8yMDIxLzExLzE4L3dpdGgtaGVhbHRoLWNhbmFkYS1zZXQtdG8tYXBwcm92ZS1wZml6ZXItZm9yLWtpZHMtZnJpZGF5LXRoZXJlcy1hLXBhdGgtb3V0LWZyb20tcGFyZW50cy1hbnhpb3VzLXdhaXQuaHRtbNIBqAFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVzdGFyLmNvbS9hbXAvb3Bpbmlvbi9zdGFyLWNvbHVtbmlzdHMvMjAyMS8xMS8xOC93aXRoLWhlYWx0aC1jYW5hZGEtc2V0LXRvLWFwcHJvdmUtcGZpemVyLWZvci1raWRzLWZyaWRheS10aGVyZXMtYS1wYXRoLW91dC1mcm9tLXBhcmVudHMtYW54aW91cy13YWl0Lmh0bWw?oc=5
2021-11-18 12:00:56Z
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