Ontario is expecting to receive its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines for young children late next week.
Health Canada approved the Moderna shots on Thursday which means that kids between the ages of six months and five years old can get the jab.
And while the dose is only a quarter of the size approved for adults, some parents and guardians may have questions regarding the shot itself.
CTV News Toronto spoke with Dr. Anna Banerji, an associate professor of pediatrics and Dalla Lana School of Public Health pediatrics infectious disease specialist, on Friday to get some answers.
IS IT NECESSARY?
“When you look at children [who have had COVID-19], most of them have mild illness. But with Omicron, we have 10 times the rate of admission [to hospital] for children than we did before. So Omicron tends to be more affecting children than the other variants.
“Now, most children have mild disease, but some children get can get very, very sick. They can have pneumonia, they can have inflammatory syndromes. And a lot of these things can cause these children to be in the hospital. It can exacerbate asthma or other underlying disease.
“So the first thing is to protect the child. The next thing is to protect that child's community. So mothers, especially pregnant mothers, parents, grandparents, anyone on chemotherapy will be compromised. Plus, reducing the transmission to other children that that child is exposed to: teachers, daycare workers. So it makes a lot of sense to get the vaccine,” Banerji said.
MY YOUNG CHILD HAS ALREADY HAD COVID-19. DO THEY NEED A VACCINE?
“So when you actually have an infection and you have the vaccine on top of it that gives you the best protection. So really, it's a combination of vaccine immunity and natural immunity. That gives you the best protection going forward.
“And you don't know, a child may have had one strain of the virus and had certain symptoms, but then may have other symptoms in the future. The other thing is, if someone has COVID, and even if the symptoms are mild, it can still be spread. So really it’s protecting the child, but also in this case, to be protecting the community around that child,” Banerji explained.
WHAT ARE THE SIDE EFFECTS?
“So they had this study, it was about 5,500 Kids, half of them had placebo half of them had the vaccine, and the side effects are actually fairly similar, but it's common side effects that you'd expect from a vaccine.
“So sore arm, maybe a little bit more lethargic, lower energy, lower appetite. There were no serious side effects found that were attributable to the vaccine in the study.
“But they'll continue to monitor it as they have in the older age groups moving forward. It's called post-marketing surveillance. So if anyone has a serious side effect related to the vaccine, it gets reported so that they'll continue to watch it,” Banerji said.
WHEN ARE THE VACCINES GOING TO BE AVAILABLE?
“I'm not 100 per cent sure,” Banerji said. “I look at the media to get my answers, but from what I hear, it's probably within about a week or so.”
On Thursday, a spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the province expects supply of the pediatric Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to arrive "late next week."
MORE: Ontario expects supply of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for youngest kids late next week
IS THIS A NEW VACCINE?
“As far as being new, there have been hundreds of millions of doses given all around the world. So, it’s not so new anymore,” Banerji said.
ONLY MODERNA HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR THIS AGE GROUP. SHOULD I WAIT FOR MORE PFIZER TO BECOME AVAILABLE?
“Well, the Pfizer vaccine, the primary dose, I think is going to be three doses but I don't know officially what it's going to be.
“But I would say that September is coming. Kids are going to go back to school, start J K, maybe go to daycare, etc. And so time is of the essence. We expect another wave once the kids go back to school and the weather gets colder.
“And so I would get the vaccines in. The Moderna vaccine is two doses, eight weeks apart. So you really want to start now as soon as possible to get those vaccines in. You won't be able to get the [complete series of] vaccines in before school starts, but you can get them soon after school starts to complete the vaccination. So I wouldn't wait,” Banerji said.
IS THERE A BENEFIT TO HOLDING OUT FOR A VACCINE THAT TARGETS SPECIFIC COVID-19 VARIANTS?
“I think that there's a high risk of a child going into daycare or school where you’ve got a whole bunch of kids who are unvaccinated.
"I think that, in general, we need to have the vaccine updated, but we don't know if it's going to be in September or December or sometime next year. And in the meantime, a child can get infected and can infect other people. And so I would not wait I would get the vaccine as soon as possible,” she said.
I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS. WHERE CAN I FIND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION?
“I would speak to a trusted health-care provider. And if you look on trusted health-care websites, official websites, some of your answers may be there as well,” Banerji said.
