Children to get jabs as Pfizer shot approved

THE Therapeutic Goods Administration has provisionally approved the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for use in Australian children aged 5-11.

The TGA said subject to final consideration from expert immunisation panel ATAGI, and other related approvals, the government would start rolling out the Pfizer vaccine to under 12s from January 10.

Children aged 5-11 who eventually receive the jab can expect to experience similar side effects to adults who received Pfizer, according to TGA head John Skerritt.

The most common side effects of Pfizer in adults are sore arm, tiredness, fatigue, headache, fever and chills. Early tests also indicate children under 12 are likely to experience less severe versions of the common side effects seen in adults.

The dose will be a third of the amount approved for those aged 12 and over.

Immunology expert Kylie Quinn said in tests conducted on children under 12, doses a third of the size of the adult dose were just as effective as the full adult dose. “They showed pretty clearly that the level of immunity was the same across all those different doses,” Dr Quinn told the ABC.

“But in the higher doses there were slightly more cases of fever immediately after getting the vaccine.”

Prof Skerritt said the Pfizer jab had been “extensively clinically tested” in children under 12, including a trial of almost 2500 children aged 5-11.

“In that trial, over 1500 received the vaccine and the response of the body, the immune response, was identical to that in the young adults,” he said.

Although children usually only experience a mild infection when they catch Covid-19, Prof Skerritt said on balance, it would be safer to vaccinate under 12s than not.

The government expects to receive ATAGI’s recommendations on how to incorporate the use of Pfizer in children into Australia’s Covid vaccination program over the coming weeks.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the provisional approval was the first of four critical steps focused on the safety and effectiveness of vaccinating Australian children.

“The first is the TGA approval, the second is the recommendation of ATAGI – we are expecting that in the coming weeks,” Mr Hunt said.

“The third then is training in relation to the use of the Pfizer vaccine in paediatric cases or for children 5-11, and then finally it is the batch testing by the TGA.”

Batch testers will work through Christmas and the new year to attempt to meet the provisional start date of the rollout of the vaccine for under 12s of January 10.