Coronavirus: Epidemiologist Rod Jackson urges parents to get kids jabbed, 'only way to prepare for winter'

By Amy Williams for RNZ

A GP who has helped care for children infected with COVID-19 says her community is ready to immunise their school-aged tamariki.

In a race to beat Omicron to winter the Government has brought forward vaccinations for COVID-19 booster shots and announced the date children can be immunised.

By mid-January another three million people will be eligible for their third booster dose and close to half-a-million children between the age of five and 11 will be able to roll up their sleeves.

GP Matire Harwood works at the Papakura Marae Health Clinic, which has helped to care for almost 200 people with COVID during the Delta outbreak, half of them children, and said unimmunised children are susceptible to COVID-19.

"For the most part children that we've been seeing in our community have had sore throats, runny noses, very bad coughs and for kids who have asthma, their asthma has worsened," she said.

"They've been off their food, they've been feverish and just generally fatigued and lethargic and as a parent if you've also had the infection, trying to look after these kids at home it's extra hard, very challenging."

Many of those families spent weeks isolating.

Harwood is relieved the vaccine will be available for kids before the school year starts and so are the families she has talked to.

"They certainly expressed that they wished that they were able to get the vaccine for their children. It was so disruptive to the whānau, to their schooling at the end of the year and their ability to socialise and take part in whānau and other community events.

"We're getting a sense that whānau want this."

COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the vaccine would not be mandatory for children and they would not need vaccine passes.

The dose is a third of the strength of the adult one and children aged five to 11 will need two shots eight weeks apart.

Paediatrician Dr Jin Russell said this gap between doses added to its efficacy and safety.

"I think it's a very smart move because evidence suggests that this will reduce the likelihood of any adverse events after vaccine or any side effects, even lower from what is already showing to be a very safe vaccine."

More than 7 million doses have so far been administered to children in the United States. Russell said results showed the vaccine was safe, and that serious side effects were extremely rare - less than 1 in a million for myocarditis.

The government is not introducing a target to reach for immunising children - something she said may need to change.

"Parents are just getting used to the idea of vaccinating their children, however if circumstances change and if we had a high level of community transmission it may be reasonable to set targets just so that we are able to measure and hold the Government and its systems accountable for how the vaccine rollout is going.

"If that were to happen, then I would strongly advocate for there to be targets for Māori tamariki."

The Government said it will resource Māori health services and iwi to get the message out and vaccinate whānau.

Epidemiologist Rod Jackson said good systems were already in place and it was the stragglers who would remain hard to reach.

"It is a big deal but we know how to do it. To me the biggest problem is to get those last 5 percent vaccinated, that's the hard work. Organising a booster dose for those people who've already had two doses, I think that's much more straightforward."

If the uptake is good for both the booster and children's vaccine, he said the country would be well placed to weather winter.

"It makes total sense, we just have to be prepared for Omicron and this is the only way to prepare. We'll be better prepared than anyone else in the world for Omicron in winter."

And vaccination centres are already planning for a busy start to the new year.

Harwood said Auckland vaccination centres are preparing to make their drive-throughs child-friendly.

"The drive through ones for example are going to offer places where the whānau can come out of the car, the child can sit in mum, dad's, koro, nana's lap while they're having the vaccination rather than having to have it in the car, but then go back to the car and have a treat like an ice block."

She said there's some reassurance for children - their dose is smaller, and so is the needle.

RNZ