So many children have been infected with COVID there is increasingly “hybrid immunity” among elementary schoolkids, says the National Advisory Committee on Immunization. Most Canadian parents have not provided COVID shots to children under 12, the panel said..“42% of the population aged 5 to 11 years of age in Canada is vaccinated with a primary series,” said a panel report. “Hybrid immunity, i.e. protection due to a combination of both infection and appropriate vaccination, has increased as many Canadians, particularly young Canadians, have now been infected.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, the Committee on Friday for the first time recommended Pfizer booster shots for children under 12. “This is the first COVID-19 vaccine authorized as a booster dose in this age group,” said a report..Parents might consider boosters at least six months since their children’s last shot, wrote the panel. “This allows time for the immune response to mature in breadth and strength,” it said..Public Health Agency figures count some 2.9 million children in the age group 5 to 11 years. A total 37 have died of COVID infection since the outbreak of the pandemic on March 11, 2020..“The risk of severe outcome is generally rare,” said Dr. Theresa Tam, chief public health officer. “I am a pediatrician. I like to remind parents that severe medical conditions in this age group should be rare but this is preventable if you get vaccinated.”.Tam said all Canadians “really do need to layer on the protections” as the country enters its third pandemic winter. “We don’t know yet, but it’s possible you would get a bigger wave in the fall compared to the summer,” Tam told reporters. “We definitely have to plan for it even though we can’t absolutely project at this time.”.Federal authorities last November 19 approved the first COVID vaccinations for children under 12 following a month-long review of data provided by the manufacturer. “Once a vaccine has received its authorization it is not considered to be experimental,” Dr. Supriya Sharma, chief medical advisor at the Department of Health, told reporters at the time..Sharma recommended children receive two doses, eight weeks apart. “The reason that it’s being spaced out is because, you know, if you get a side effect in that period after the vaccination it’s good to be able to know potentially what vaccine it’s related to,” said Sharma..Privy Council in-house research last February 18 showed parents resented being made to “feel guilty” over getting COVID shots for young children. Parents questioned in focus groups said they “objected to what they saw as an attempt to make them feel guilty and worried about the well-being of their children,” said a pollsters’ report..Parents expressed “legitimate concerns about the possible side effects and long-term impacts of a drug that, in their view, had been rushed to market for emergency use and remained largely untested in children,” said the report.
