Children last in line to get Covid-19 vaccines

Children are last on the list for receiving the Covid-19 jab and while the US has already started to vaccinate adolescent children, South Africa’s slow rollout strategy will only leave children susceptible to the virus, experts say.

Of the total 1,973,972 cumulative cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, a small 5.6% of those were children aged 0-14 years.

According to statistics by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a total of 204,120 children under the age of 19 have been infected and only 0.6% of the total Covid-19 related deaths fall in the same age group.

But the vaccines procured in the country have not registered for use in children as there was no data on the safety and efficacy on minors due to them being excluded from the early clinical trials, Department of Health spokesperson Popo Maja said.

“Some trials in children have now been completed and more are under way. The Pfizer vaccine is now registered in some countries for the use of children 12 years and older, but it is not yet registered for this age group in South Africa. Children are also lower priority than adults because the disease is milder in children compared to adults, especially older adults,” Maja said.

The fast-spreading Delta variant seems to be more dangerous for younger people, said Stellenbosch University epidemiologist Dr Jo Barnes.

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“Younger children are also getting Covid-19 more and they don’t seem to get as sick but they pass it on. Children are definitely getting Covid-19 a lot more easily with the Delta variant.”

Barnes explained that adolescent children had a more mature immune system to handle the Covid-19 jabs compared to younger children.

Testing vaccines on children would be a challenge due to the health risk and difficulties in getting a minor’s consent, she said.

“It is not impossible to do, but it is more challenging to test vaccines on young children. They can’t give consent. You have to jump through many scientific and ethical hoops before you give vaccines to young children because of the risk. If one of them acquires an illness, or worse dies, it would be a scandal,” she said.

But with the country having vaccinated a low 3 million adults compared to the targeted two thirds of the population, children will not be getting the jab any time soon – not until all targeted adults are vaccinated, said president of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Professor Glenda Gray.

The country aims to vaccinate 67% of the population to build herd immunity. While this figure does not include children, it would eventually leave them susceptible to the virus once adults are immune, Gray said.

“Children are not yet vaccinated because we haven’t been able to vaccinate most of our citizens. It is important to get children vaccinated because there are benefits – these include parental and teacher confidence because we want to teach in a school where children are vaccinated. Everyone wants to be protected and vaccinating children is a way to keep schools open.

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“Vaccinating children is important because if one wants to control the pandemic, children are going to have to be considered when the time comes. Once adults are vaccinated, only the susceptible will be exposed. Then we will have illness among [children] and infections will be concentrated like we see in the US,” Gray said.

In the US, children over the age of 12 years are eligible to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, with the country having a vaccine for emergency use for those aged 12-15 years. The country is already conducting studies on vaccinating younger children.

This research would be of benefit to South Africa, said Gray.

“We will have trials from the US. We currently have limited trials on children planned on a global level to expand vaccination. By the time we are ready to vaccinate children, we will have enough information about it,” she said.

rorisangk@citizen.co.za