When can children get vaccine?
As the Covid-19 vaccine roll out starts in New Zealand, we still don’t know when children will be able to have the jab.
This means questions remain over whether we can reach herd immunity and reopen our borders without vaccinating about 20 per cent of the population, and whether families will be able to travel overseas.
Border workers, managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) staff, frontline health workers and their household contacts are the first in line to be immunised, after the arrival of the first batch of Pfizer vaccines earlier this month.
Health authorities have said the public will be able to access vaccines in the second half of
2021. But Medsafe has advised no one under 16 should receive the vaccine.
Initial clinical trials for Covid19 vaccines focused on those aged
16 and over.
While children can still get very sick with Covid-19 they are at much less risk than older age groups, vaccinologist Helen Petousis-Harris said.
Children are also less likely to transmit the virus, she added, which is why they have not been the priority group for vaccine studies and roll outs.
Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna started recruiting younger trial participants at the end of last year, and the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca team is planning tests in those aged 12 to 18 next month.
Moderna is testing its vaccine in 3000 children aged between 12 and 17, with half receiving two shots of vaccine and half getting a placebo, or fake drug. However, it has struggled to enrol participants.
Petousis-Harris said trials including children probably would not take long.
‘‘We have no specific dates yet though,’’ she said.
There are about one million children aged under 16 in New Zealand, which is 20 per cent of the population.
Last month, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said we would need enough of our population to be vaccinated and protected for New Zealand to safely reopen its borders.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker said it would be difficult to reach herd immunity with such a large part of the population excluded from the vaccine roll out.
Experts have estimated that 70 to 90 percent of the population might need to be immunised against Covid-19 to reach herd immunity.
Other people such as pregnant women, who represent about one per cent of the population, would likely also be excluded from the vaccine roll out initially, and some adults will refuse the jab because of vaccine hesitancy, Baker said.
While children under 12 are less likely to get sick from the coronavirus and spread it, teenagers are big spreaders, he said.
Baker was hopeful trials on children would have enough results by the second half of the year when the general population would start getting vaccinated.
With children being less likely to get sick and die from Covid-19, some parents might be hesitant to vaccinate.
Petousis-Harris said once the vaccine had been administered to most adolescents and adults, parents would feel more comfortable about vaccinating the younger ones.
‘‘The vaccines are likely to be very effective in children and also very safe. There are no particular concerns about using them in children.
‘‘However, it is important to collect sufficient data before broadening the recommendations.’’
By the time vaccines become available for younger children, a lot of data will be available, she said.
Baker said some countries would likely make being vaccinated against Covid-19 a requirement of entry, and airlines would likely make it a condition to board a plane.
He expected children would be able to be vaccinated by the time international travel becomes accessible again to Kiwis.
‘‘The vaccines are likely to be very effective in children and also very safe. There are no particular concerns about using them in children.’’
Helen Petousis-Harris, vaccinologist