Susie O’Brien: Vaccinating our kids needs to be made a priority

While overseas children are rolling up their sleeves to the Covid jab, our leaders and regulators are still debating, discussing and dithering.

Victorian children are months away from being vaccinated despite kids under 12 in the US getting doses from this week.

While American children are rolling up their sleeves to get this vital protection, our leaders and regulators are still debating, discussing and dithering. The protection of our population is sinking under the weight of medical red tape and political pointscoring.

This is what happens when federal ineptitude meets state incompetence. For nearly two years, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has presided over an agonisingly slow vaccine rollout, prolonging the closure of our state by lockdown-loving leader Daniel Andrews.

Now our kids, who deserve to be vaccinated right away, are paying the price. Until children under 12 get vaccinated, they will continue to catch and spread the disease, even though the vast majority don’t get very sick.

The lack of vaccination of children means schools and childcare centres are now the last major weak spot in our health response to Covid.

Data shows 36 of the 53 biggest outbreaks in this state are in schools and childcare centres. Outbreaks with more than 50 cases have started in schools and spread to households and communities.

It’s no wonder that one third of all primary close contacts across the state are under 18 and about 13,000 children have Covid.

As other countries like the US invoke emergency powers to release vaccines like Pfizer which have a proven track record and rigorous research behind them, what’s happening here?

Nothing.

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

ATAGI, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, is yet to assess any vaccine for use by children in this country because it’s too conservative, too slow and too risk-averse. But what can you expect from the group that kept changing its mind about vaccines for adults?

The move also needs to get through the Therapeutic Goods Administration. These are important steps designed to keep us safe, but there is plentiful research and evidence for these bodies to draw on right now.

Prof Allen Cheng says ATAGI is still weeks away from making a decision, warning that vaccination of children may not start until early next year. Then we need National Cabinet to approve it before a rollout can even begin, and then the laborious task of arranging supplies comes after that.

There is no reason for the decision and process to drag out long beyond the end of this school year.

Vaccines for children aged five to 11 have been cleared in other countries such as China, Cuba, India, Cambodia, Chile, Argentina and the UAE. The Pfizer vaccine has been found in clinical trials to be 90.7 per cent effective against coronavirus for children aged five to 11.

It is believed that a smaller dose of the vaccine helps counter myocarditis, which is a type of heart inflammation that’s a side effect of Pfizer. The risks of this in children are low – about 11 in every 100,000 males according to an Israeli study. It’s negligible in girls.

Every expert paediatric group around the globe has supported vaccinating children against Covid.

Progress in this country should not be so slow given that the Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt was talking about it back in September.

In Victoria schools with outbreaks are getting rapid antigen tests to help get kids back to class earlier. This is a good first step, but kids urgently need vaccines to stop them getting sick, not just more testing to stop the virus spread.

The rapid antigen tests are only going to be available in 20 outbreak schools initially, before distribution to all schools by November 15.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

The state government is good at talking big – they’re always first to get the press releases out and the minister in front of the microphone.

Yet the promises don’t always stack up in reality. Many schools say they are still waiting for air purifiers despite promises they’d be in all schools by now.

In the meantime, schools are opening and shutting due to positive cases, further traumatising kids who are vulnerable after six lockdowns. Educators are also scared about their own safety, particularly those in childcare and primary schools with largely unvaccinated children.

As kids continue to catch and spread this disease, politicians are bickering, with state Education Minister James Merlino saying he’d “hate to see the federal government fail a second time in securing vaccines for our community”.

As a member of the government that presided over the longest, hardest lockdown in the world, he’s hardly in a position to criticise. Australian children deserve better.