It’s not an if but a when for Health Canada to approve a COVID-19 vaccine for children.
Last week, Pfizer asked the department to approve its vaccine for kids age five to 11, but the news has received mixed reaction from some parents.
“You know, as long as it’s safe and we protect them and our family members and people close to us, that’s what’s most important to us,” said mother of two Stefanie Ventura.
Her seven-year-old, Daniel, has epilepsy and is living with autism. Ventura admits she’s a little worried but after consulting with medical professionals, she says the pros outweigh the cons and will vaccinate her children.
“It’s also more worrisome that if he were to catch COVID, it would be more detrimental to his health than to actually get the COVID vaccine and protect him,” she said.
Kelly Turpin has three girls aged nine, eight and six, who will not be getting the vaccine.
“I really feel like my instinct is saying, ‘No, you have healthy kids who are always outdoors. There’s no health issues,'” said Turpin.
The unvaccinated mother says the vaccine is too new. Turpin says they will only get vaccinated if Quebec’s vaccine passport age is lowered.
“In that case, I will end up getting them vaccinated,” she said, because she worries about long-term psychological effects of being apart from society.
According to a recent study from Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), 22 per cent of parents said they will not vaccinate their children age five to 11, while 10 per cent said they are still undecided. Forty-four per cent said they intend to vaccinate their kids.
“There’s a lot of unknowns, but unknowns doesn’t mean unsafe,” said Children’s Clinic medical director Dr. Harley Eisman.
Eisman says mRNA research has been happening for the past 10 to 20 years, it’s just new terminology to the general public.
“Deciding not to vaccinate your child against COVID 19, it’s not the same as, you know, delaying a chickenpox vaccine and COVID-19 is not the common cold,” he said.
He says the vaccine side effects are minor compared with those of the COVID-19 virus.
“We’ve seen some pretty severe complications in terms of the multi-inflammatory, the PIMS (pediatric inflammatory multi-system syndrome) or the MIS-C (multi-system inflammatory syndrome), this multi-inflammatory entity that occurs weeks after getting COVID 19.”
Eisman says it’s reasonable for parents to be hesitant. In that case, he recommends talking to a medical professional. However, the pediatrician reminds parents the only way to stop the spread of the virus effectively is to vaccinate young children.
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