Spotlight on child vaccine ‘policy’

‘How can you blame a child based on a parent’s decision not to vaccinate?’

THE vaccination of children under 18 is under the microscope, as paediatric clinical trials could determine whether it becomes policy.

Experts have called for transparency as the outcome, together with scientific research, approval from SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra), the National Ministerial Advisory Committee, and government will determine whether it will become a reality and policy.

Since the start of the pandemic, children under 20 have accounted for 42 586 of Covid-19 cases, 109 children under the age of 19 have died, with the youngest being between the ages of 1 month and 5 months old.

With vaccine hesitancy still an issue in South Africa, just over 13 million vaccinations have been administered among the adult population.

A month ago, The Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Numolux, and China’s Sinovac, partnered to conduct a paediatric vaccine trial for children between the ages of 6 months and 17 years old.

The study includes 2 000 children across South Africa, with seven clinical research sites across the country.

Chief operating officer of Numolux Group Anton Arendse said the trials were successful thus far.

“Since the initial roll-out of the paediatric trial, the project has moved along as planned,” said Arendse.

“In fact, the response has been overwhelmingly positive – to the extent that the project currently runs ahead of schedule, across all of the seven sites, with continued interest from parents and young people,” said Arendse.

He said Numolux continued to work closely with Sinovac and the seven trial sites to ensure the smooth running of the trial, as well as providing Sahpra with their prescribed regular reports on the progress of the trial.

“Given the nature of the trial, as well as the cohort involved, it requires that we both ensure the trial’s integrity, as well as protect the privacy of the candidates participating in the trial. The project team will provide further details as the project continues to unfold,” said Arendse.

Professor Kobus Maree, Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, and the University of Pretoria said a full report on how government derived a policy for a vaccine for children should be made public and that no child should be denied education based on their parents’ decision not to take the vaccine.

“These are life-changing decisions,” he said. “The issue should be widely debated and discussed, and the government needs to make these findings public – on how they derived to it – in the best interest of the child.

“How can you blame a child for a parent’s decision not to vaccinate, and that denying children from writing exams might affect their future academically,” added Arendse.

Vanessa le Roux, of Parents for Equal Education SA (Peesa), said many parents would be against child vaccines and called for the government to be transparent as to what the inoculations contained.

“The majority of parents will be against the vaccination and it will be argued that we were vaccinated when we were babies but, in this case, we are in a pandemic where the vaccine was rushed and the government did not communicate enough about the vaccines – instead, they used politicians,” she said.

“Now they are moving to our children and they need to be transparent about what they are injecting and subjecting our children to and, in the end, they want to make it mandatory. Their argument is weak when they refer to a time when we were babies,” she said.

National Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaala confirmed yesterday that South Africa was officially out of the third wave. “It is with a deep sense of relief that I can say to South Africans today that we have indeed exited the longdrawn third wave of Covid-19 infections, on September 23.”

Provincial health spokesperson Byron la Hoe said an amalgamation of factors would produce an outcome on a paediatric vaccine, and whether it would become part of a direct national policy.

“Once the positive outcome of the trials are established and based on approval by Sahpra, the National Ministerial Advisory Committee will advise the national department, who will consider and direct the national policy on this matter,” said La Hoe.

Spokesperson for MEC for Education Debbie Schäfer, Kerry Mauchline said they could not comment prematurely on future vaccines for pupils, in both primary and high school, but that the department was working closely with the Department of Health, regarding the inoculation of matric pupils.

Schäfer said they could not comment on future vaccines, but detailed how current programmes were being run.

“The WCED is working with the provincial Department of Health to make it easier for matric pupils aged 18 and over to get their Covid-19 vaccine if they wish to do so. Schools indicate to our department if they would like assistance with scheduling a time slot, and the DoH has allocated specific times in which they can be prioritised,” she said.