1. When it comes to children ages 18 and below, how vulnerable are they towards the Covid-19 virus? In other words, how does the coronavirus affect children?
Up until 1 June 2021, there have been 82,341 reported cases in children under 18 years old. This is 14.2% of the total number of cases as at 1 June 2021 (579,462 cases).
There were 15 deaths among children aged below 18 years, which is 0.52% of the 2,867 deaths reported as at 1 June 2021.
The case fatality rate (CFR) among the pediatric age group was 0.02% as compared to 0.57% in the adult population, which is 29 times more deadly.
2. If children are the most vulnerable of the lot, why is the government prolonging the decision to vaccinate them?
I think it is a vaccine supply chain issue. The vaccine must be prioritized to the high risk group who suffer more likelihood of being hospitalized, nursed in the ICU, require breathing assistance with a respirator and death.
Within the pressing context of a restricted global supply of vaccines, many pediatricians have pleaded for the judicious and priority utilization of precious COVID-19 vaccines.
In an opinion piece to the Washington Post, Richard Malley (Harvard University) and Adam Finn (University of Bristol) wrote:
“Speaking as pediatricians who are also vaccine researchers, we say: Please don’t make a priority of immunizing healthy children 2 to 11 years old against the coronavirus.”
The May 2021 editorial in the BMJ echoed a similar sentiment:
“COVID-19 severity in children under the age of 12 is similar to that of influenza, and as health resources are stretched thin even in high income countries vaccinating children is unlikely to be a priority.”
3. In your opinion, should children be vaccinated against the virus? If so, which vaccines would be best used for them?
All children aged 12-17 years should be vaccinated against covid-19. The JKJAV and the MOH has prioritized 16-17 year olds and those aged 12-15 with co-morbidities.
The manufacturers of Sinovac has published their experience with Sinovac in children between ages 3-17 years old.
They concluded “CoronaVac (Sinovac) was well tolerated and safe and induced humoral responses in children and adolescents aged 3–17 years. Neutralising antibody titres induced by the 3·0 μg dose were higher than those of the 1·5 μg dose. The results support the use of 3·0 μg dose with a two-immunisation schedule for further studies in children and adolescents.
The mRNA vaccine manufacturers are studying it’s use in children from 6 months to 12 years. Results are not expected until the end of the year
4. If children are left unvaccinated, would this contribute to more new variants and if so, a new spike in cases despite the adult population achieving herd immunity?
The higher the coverage of the population vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 , the lower the ability of the coronavirus to mutate into Variants Of Concern which may escape the ability of the neutralizing antibodies to kill the virus.
Children below 18 years comprise 29% of the total population i.e. 9.3 million. Therefore they would contribute considerably to the herd immunity which protects various segments of the population that cannot be vaccinated eg
- parents who refuse their children to be immunized
- too young to be immunized eg less than 3 years old (no studies)
- contraindications to the vaccines eg anaphylaxis to contents of the vaccines
- allergy to the vaccine
