covid-19: health canada approves first covid vaccine for kids under 5. here's what you need to know.
what's the dosage? what are the side effects? when will it be available in b.c.?
3 minute read
nearly two million children will soon be eligible for immunization against covid-19 after health canada approved the moderna vaccine for kids six months to five years.
yana tatevosian
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getty images/istockphoto
on thursday, health canada approved the first covid-19 vaccine for infants and pre-schoolers, enabling parents of about 208,000 kids between six months and five years old in b.c. to get a shot.
the federal agency has found that moderna’s mrna vaccine is safe and effective at preventing covid-19 in kids of this age group following an independent review.
what’s the dosage? what are the side effects? when will it be available in b.c.? here’s what you need to know about the new paediatric vaccine.
q: what’s the vaccine?
moderna’s spikevax vaccine is the first covid-19 vaccine authorized in canada for children six months to five years old.
the vaccine will be given as a two-dose primary series. at 25 micrograms, it is a quarter of the size approved for adults (100 mcg) and half of the dosage approved for kids age 6 to 11 (50 mcg).
on thursday, the national advisory committee on immunization issued the green light for provinces to offer the vaccine, recommending that the vaccine “may” be offered to children in this age group. it recommends an eight-week interval between shots for most kids and a third dose and four-to-eight week interval for kids with immunocompromised health conditions.
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q: what’s the efficacy of this vaccine?
health canada said trial results for the moderna vaccine showed the immune response in young children was equivalent to the immune response of 18- to 25-year-olds to the adult formulation.
the trial was conducted when omicron was the dominant strain and found the vaccine was 50.6 per cent effective in preventing symptomatic covid-19 infection for children under 23 months and 36.8 per cent effective in children age two to five.
q: what are the side effects?
health canada said there were no safety concerns identified in the study. the most common reactions were similar to the ones reported for other paediatric vaccines, including pain at the site, sleepiness and loss of appetite. less commonly, some kids got a mild to moderate fever, swelling at the injection site, nausea, tender lymph nodes under the arm, headaches and muscle aches.
health canada said there were uncertainties about the vaccine because it’s new and long-term data is not yet available. for example, there’s little data about the risk of very rare reactions like myocarditis, a swelling of heart tissue, though no cases came up in the trials.
q: can my child get it at the same time as their other childhood immunizations?
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naci recommends that the vaccine be given two weeks before or after another vaccine to help identify if a potential side effect is due to the covid-19 vaccine or the other vaccine.
q: what is the risk of my child getting covid-19 or hospitalized because of the virus?
as of march 2022 in b.c., there have been more than 12,800 kids up to age four who have contracted covid. nearly 70 per cent got the virus during the 2021/2022 school year, according to b.c. centre for disease control data.
most children who get covid-19 have mild or asymptomatic cases, but some experience more severe illness or develop long-term symptoms. hospitalization and icu admission for children have increased across canada since the highly-contagious omicron became the dominant variant.
the average monthly rate of hospitalization due to covid for kids six months to 4 years jumped from 1.4 per 100,000 in 2020 and 2021 to 15.9 per 100,000 in the first three months of 2022, said naci.
b.c. has recorded two deaths among kids four and younger; 299 have been hospitalized with covid-19.
q: can i get the vaccine in b.c.?
not yet. health canada has indicated there is a “sufficient supply” of vaccines which will be shipped to the provinces “very shortly.”
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the vaccines will start to be available at health authority-run vaccination clinics starting aug. 2.
parents and guardians are encouraged to register their children in the province’s get vaccinated website to be notified when they can make an appointment when the immunization program starts.
parents can also register their children who are not yet six months old for an invitation to be issued once the child reaches that age.
— with files from canadian press
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