A clear message for the vaccination of children, please!

Everything indicates that the vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 will soon begin in Quebec. That would be great news. An important step that would bring us even closer to our life before.

But the subject is sensitive. Parents, quite legitimately, fear for the health of their offspring. An INSPQ survey shows that 27% of them are unfavorable or very unfavorable to the idea of ​​having their young children vaccinated.

It will therefore be important to provide them with clear information. To this end, it is useful to take a little step back.

Remember, last spring, the confusion that reigned around the risks and benefits of various vaccines.

Politicians hammered that “the best vaccine is the first one you get.” But in Ottawa, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization clouded the message by advising to wait for products from Pfizer and Moderna rather than accepting the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Quebec Immunization Committee sent its own lines – which were neither time nor content coordinated with those in Ottawa. The result was a considerable disorder, which fueled the fear of side effects.

Health Canada approval is currently pending for Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization will then decide on the relevance of immunizing children. The Quebec Immunization Committee will do the same.

Hopefully, this time around, regulatory agencies and expert committees will coordinate their messages to avoid confusion. The issues are complex, especially because the risks and benefits of vaccines differ in children and adults. But it will take a simple, coherent and transparent signal.

Past experience must be used. Experts now know that in the particular context in which we live, their writings are not only read by their peers. They are also scrutinized by worried citizens who are trying to see things clearly – and who have the right to get the facts straight without having to register for an evening course in immunology to unravel the contradictory signals which reach them.

We will see what analysis the Canadian experts will make of the data provided by Pfizer on the reaction of children to its vaccine. In the meantime, here’s what we know.

For children aged 5 to 11, Pfizer tested a dose three times lower than that offered to older children. Just over 4,500 children participated in the studies. Of the batch, 3,100 received the vaccine and the rest the placebo.

Data shows that the vaccine is 91% effective in preventing infections. In general, the vaccine is well tolerated by children – even better than by older children.

What worries the most is obviously the risk of myocarditis. These heart inflammations have been detected very rarely in adults and adolescents who have received the messenger RNA vaccine. During the study, no cases were detected in children. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be when the mass vaccination begins. The risk of myocarditis is around 1 in 50,000 in the general population, and 1 in 6,500 in men aged 16 to 19, according to an Israeli study. The size of the sample therefore does not make it possible to determine the prevalence in children of this serious side effect, which remains rare and treatable.

Against these risks, we must oppose those caused by the disease on children. Yes, they resist it better than their elders. But in the COVID-19 lottery, some kids are pulling the wrong number. They develop long-term COVID or the disturbing multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

Read our columnist Isabelle Hachey’s column on this subject

We must also add the indirect effects (wearing a mask in class, class closures, stress). And the fact that unvaccinated children represent the last great pool in which COVID-19 can spread without any real barrier, creating problems for the entire society.

It is the balance between all these risks that must be assessed, then explained to Quebec parents. By making sure that science prevails over fear.

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