Patrick Carlyon: Wait-and-see approach won’t save kids from Covid

Dozens of Victorian kids have needed ICU treatment for Covid-related illness during this wave, yet Australia is still dithering on vaccines for children.

Sometimes, the stats don’t lie.

Thirteen thousand Victorian kids under the age of 10 have had Covid. The number of active cases in that age group has tripled. Little kids are the most infected age group.

The accepted evidence says that children don’t get sick from Covid. Yet 39 Victorian children have needed Covid-related intensive care treatment during this wave.

Schools and childcare centres account for 36 of the 53 biggest outbreaks in this wave.

Schools open, then close, and thousands of children and their families are put out once again by blanket responses to quarantining, even if 14 days is being lowered to seven.

Worldwide, virtually every major paediatric association supports child vaccinations. Picture: AFP

Kids here could be vaccinated. They need to be – on the latest count, 3372 of children aged 0-9 have the virus.

Worldwide, virtually every major paediatric association supports child vaccinations.

Young kids are being vaccinated in the US, China, Cuba and Costa Rica, which has announced mandatory jabs with this self-evident statement: “Our basic vaccination scheme has made it possible to subdue many of the viruses that cause suffering and health consequences and even fatalities in the underage population.”

Why is Australia dallying on kids’ Covid vaccinations?

The imperative grows as we re-open, which will include influxes of international visitors, some from countries where rates lag at 10-20 per cent.

The virus will be bouncing around for years. Former Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young, now that state’s governor, was prone to reckless politicking through this year. But she made a sensible point a few weeks ago.

“We’re all going to be exposed to Covid, every single one of us,” she said. “It’s a very, very infectious disease, much more infectious than the flu.

“The issue will be, that if you’re vaccinated you probably won’t even know you’ve got it, or you might have some very mild symptoms, and that’s what you want.”

Pfizer has found in trials that 90 per cent of those vaccinated kids will be spared symptoms if they catch Covid. Picture: AFP

Kids might suffer relatively less than adults. But the fact that dozens of Victorian children have been in ICU speaks of the need for the widest possible coverage.

In America, they will begin vaccinating 28 million children – more than Australia’s population – after independent vaccine advisers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed the recommendation 14-0.

Pfizer has found in trials that 90 per cent of those vaccinated kids will be spared symptoms if they catch Covid.

More than 740 minors have died of Covid in the US. That’s a lot of grieving families. No wonder Big Bird, who is notionally six-years-old, is tweeting about getting his jab.

Here, we have the means and we have the research. Yet Australia and Victoria have always lagged in its Covid response. The wait-and-see mindset, coupled with restrictions, presents a state and country beholden to absurd caution. Call it “helicopter politicking”.

While we dither, more kids will unnecessarily get seriously ill from Covid. How’s that in the best interest of public health?