Parents, doctor react to first day of children vaccinations

Kids between the ages of five and 11 have started rolling up their sleeves throughout Saskatchewan as COVID-19 vaccinations began Wednesday for that age group.

Regina’s Tyrell Brown is one of many parents throughout the province who chose to have two of his eligible kids vaccinated.

He managed to book doses for Saturday after dealing with the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s booking system crashing on Tuesday morning.

“It’s one less thing to worry about for them. Even though I do feel they’re low at risk, if you can prevent it 100 per cent or close to it, why not?” Brown said when asked about the decision to get his kids vaccinated.

He says his family had “mixed feelings” about getting their kids the shot, but later decided it was the right decision to make.

“It’s a sense of relief that they’re a little bit more protected but at the same time, there’s a lot of vaccine hesitancy that gets in your head,” Brown said. “And you wonder if the shot you’re giving your kids is safe enough to give them.

“I’m just taking the experts’ words on it and hoping for the best.”

Infectious disease physician Dr. Alex Wong is one of those experts who says kids getting vaccinated is 100 per cent the right decision.

He spoke about pediatric shots that have already gone into arms in the U.S. and what that means for kids in Canada.

“So far, there has been no significant safety signal in terms of heart inflammation, or myocarditis, so that’s reassuring,” Wong said during Wednesday’s Greg Morgan Morning Show.

“Second doses in the U.S. are probably going to go into arms starting as early as this week, so we’re going to again see a lot of data coming from the U.S. really quickly.

“What we know about it looks to be extremely reassuring,. There’s no risk in terms of long-term side effects. The mRNA is degraded in your body within two, three weeks, so that’s why you don’t see long-term side effects outside of six to eight weeks.”

More than 112,000 doses of Pfizer’s pediatric vaccine are arriving in the province, which is enough for a first dose for every child in the five-to-11 age group in Saskatchewan.

Wong says even though the risk of a child contracting COVID and getting seriously ill is lower than other age groups, it’s still important to get the shot.

“The reality is is that no kid should die of anything that is preventable,” he said. “When you look at other disease conditions like mumps, measles, rubella, norovirus — things that we vaccinate our kids for on a routine basis — the rate of death from those types of diseases and conditions was far, far, far lower than with COVID-19.

“The risk is low, but the risk should be zero.”

As of Tuesday, there have been 13,549 cases among those under the age of 11 in Saskatchewan.

Wong believes kids getting vaccinated could really move the dial on getting out of this pandemic.

“I think a lot of people are really hoping, quietly probably, that once we get a large proportion of this population vaccinated, it’s going to really help significantly cut down the amount of community transmission that occurs as well as significantly reduce the likelihood that we’re going to have another wave that was anything like our horrible fourth wave,” he said.

Health minister pleased with vaccine uptake

According to Health Minister Paul Merriman, roughly 13,000 vaccine appointments had been booked with the Saskatchewan Health Authority as of Wednesday morning.

That represents about 10 per cent of eligible kids between the ages of five and 11.

“We want to get the youngest ones vaccinated as soon as possible, understanding it’s getting close to the Christmas season,” Merriman said during an appearance on Gormley.

“We geared up to be able to handle the influx. That’s why we’ve got 221 SHA locations in 140 communities across the province.”

While there is no specific immunization target for kids in that age group, Merriman would like to see the province hit 50 per cent by the end of the year.

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Brent Bosker