Vaccination in 5 to 11 year olds important not just for today, but years to come: Pediatrician
Alberta is getting ready to roll out vaccines for kids between the ages of 5 and 11 if they are approved by Health Canada.
Parents can now pre-register their children for the shot if it is eventually approved by the federal regulator.
For months children have had the highest infection rate in the province. While children are at a much lower per capita risk for serious outcomes, a Calgary paediatrician says that's not the whole story.
"Because there's been so many cases, there have been kids who have had severe outcomes (and) ended up in hospital or intensive care units," said Dr. Jim Kellner, paediatrician and infectious disease doctor at Alberta Children's Hospital. He also sits on the federal COVID-19 Immunity Task Force.
"And there have been children who have ended up with this condition that comes after COVID MIS-C - multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children,” said Kellner.
He cautioned that while kids may not be as efficient of spreaders as adults, that doesn't mean they aren't capable of significant spread altogether.
“Children who are attending school and involved in the community have many more opportunities to transmit," Kellner said. "So even if each time they might be at risk of transmitting the virus is a lower risk, the number of events that, and the number of opportunities to transmit is much higher in children.”
PARENTS EAGER TO HAVE CHILDREN VACCINATED
A recent Angus Reid poll found 46 per cent of Alberta parents are eager to have their 5 to 11 year old children vaccinated against COVID, another 29 per cent said they would not. A further 10 per cent were unsure.
While many in the medical community are hopeful approval of Pfizer's mRNA vaccine could be given before the end of this year, Health Canada still needs to review the data for both safety and efficacy.
“If a higher percentage of children attending school can be vaccinated, that's going to be an important part of helping make things safer going forward, and helping us get back to normal,” said Dr. Kellner, adding vaccination will likely go hand in hand with other measures to limit spread for possibly years to come as the world community works to drive the disease into increasingly isolated pockets.
He said achieving good vaccination rates in children now will not only protect in the short term, but could help in the long term.
"The expectation (is) that some protection will linger from vaccines that could last for years, and that we're likely looking at wanting to protect people from COVID-19 for years.”
Some school boards in Ontario are asking the province to prepare to add COVID-19 shots to the province's list of required vaccinations for school age children.
Alberta does not have any vaccination requirements in schools.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
Investigators have finally revealed the identity of an unknown victim nicknamed 'Midtown Jane Doe,' who was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City two decades ago.