Health experts urge caution on kids Covid jabs

A panel of experts say authorities need more trial data on the safety and effectiveness of Covid jabs for kids before rollout in Australia.

A child receives the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination in the US.

Child health experts have urged caution on the push to vaccinate primary school students, saying it may take months to know whether the risks of the Covid jab outweigh the benefits.

As Australia’s adult vaccination rate passes 90 per cent, experts also say the decision should be based on the best interests of children, rather than trying to further limit transmission of the virus.

In the US, an emergency approval has been issued for the Pfizer vaccine for children aged five to 11, based on a trial of only 1500 participants.

Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration and the expert immunisation panel are not expected to deliver their verdict until early January. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says the advisers would act “as quickly as possible” but did not “want to cut corners”.

A panel of experts interviewed by the Herald Sun agreed authorities needed to wait for more trial data on the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for children.

A child receives a Pfizer vaccination in America. Picture: Getty Images

Former federal deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said authorities needed to be cautious even if it took several months to collate adequate data.

He said the risk of myocarditis – inflammation of the heart muscle – was small but still greater than the risk of rare blood clots caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Royal Children’s Hospital pediatrician Dr Daryl Cheng, the medical lead at the Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre, said the harms of lockdown and a desire to avoid school exposures and closures were “at the forefront of many parents’ minds”.

“While vaccinating children in this age group may also benefit the push to reduce community transmission of Covid-19, we should place the best interests of the child before the benefit on the wider population,” he said.

Deakin University’s chair in epidemiology, Professor Catherine Bennett said that as the “heavy-handed” approach to school closures eased, ­authorities would have a “better idea of how well we can manage infection risks through testing and other means”.

Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, said that while he would await the advice of federal authorities, he wanted his three children under 12 protected “as soon as possible”.

If Pfizer is approved for younger children, Australia has the smaller doses required for children of that age.

University of Sydney infectious diseases pediatrician Robert Booy said studies so far were “inadequate” and that the vaccine had to be tested on more than a million children to judge side effects such as myocarditis.