Parents Covid vaccination for children under five years old

Parents desperate to have their young children vaccinated against Covid have been denied the right to — while doses for at-risk under-five-year-olds are being thrown out.

Parents desperate to have their young children vaccinated against Covid have been denied the right to while doses for under-fives are expiring and being thrown out.

In September, Australia’s vaccination experts from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) approved the Moderna vaccine for children aged six months to five years — but only if they have certain health conditions such as diabetes, or disabilities or are immune compromised.

Federal Health Minster Mark Butler confirmed in August an order of 500,000 doses would arrive in late September.

There are about 70,000 young children in the age range at higher risk of developing severe illness who are eligible, but the federal Health Department confirmed that as of October 26 only 400 Moderna Spikevax vaccines had been administered to under-fives.

Parents keen to get their young children vaccinated say they are being turned down.

Annika Oksa wants to vaccinate daughter Elliana, 2, against Covid. Picture: Supplied

Orian, 11, and Avianna, 9, Oksa have both been vaccinated.

Annika Oksa from Dayboro, north of Brisbane, had her two older children vaccinated when the over-fives were approved, but her youngest, two-year-old Elliana, remains the only one in the family not vaccinated.

“The two older ones luckily were eligible. “My daughter is 2½, she was born the day they declared the pandemic, since then I have been thinking of ways to protect her,” she said.

When she tried to book her daughter in, she was knocked back on eligibility.

“It has been approved overseas much earlier, then finally we hear it is approved, made an order, it’s landed in the country, great, but no, we can’t have it, only the vulnerable first, but no mention of when others can get it,” she said.

“I called to make an appointment, the appointment was booked and half an hour before the scheduled appointment they cancelled it. The first thing they said was they didn’t have any vaccine because it had all expired,” she said.

The USA, Canada and Singapore have approved the vaccine for all children over six months, but ATAGI does not currently recommend it for those not at high risk because “these children have a very low likelihood of severe illness from Covid-19”.

A Perth mum, who asked not to be named because she was a health professional, said she had taken her three-year-old out of daycare to protect her from Covid because she could not vaccinate her under current rules.

“Paediatric Covid doses are expiring and being binned while informed parents not willing to have their children infected on repeat are desperately awaiting access to the promised vaccines. There’s a preference to bin doses rather than administer them,” the mum said.

A spokesman for the Health Department said they did not disclose how many doses had expired.

Both mothers are more concerned about Covid’s long-term effects on the immune system and long Covid.

“I want the vaccine, I follow the data, and I’m a research scientists. My main fear is long Covid, how will it affect her future and immune system, even if it is not the acute illness, it’s the long-term effects,” Ms Oksa said.

“The data from the overseas children, there are millions of vaccinated children and the data clearly says the benefit is there,” she said.

An international study published in August found the prevalence of long Covid in children to be anywhere from 5 to 10 per cent.

“Children six months to five years in the USA and Canada have been able to get vaccinated.

“I saw recently published data the age group zero to four have the third-highest hospitalisation rate for this disease and that is significant to me,” Ms Oksa said.

Epidemiologist Professor Adrian Esterman said the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which follows the advice of ATAGI, was very conservative on risk versus benefit.

“They will only allow a vaccine if the benefits are greater than the risks and they judged from the latest research that they are not, so unless a child has severe health problems, the chance of a child getting sick with Covid is very, very low and they have more chance of a problem with the vaccine than Covid, so the risk is not worth it, at this stage,” Prof Esterman said.

ATAGI said there was ongoing consideration to broaden access for under-fives based on accumulating data.

Got a news tip? Email [e-mail]