An expert’s view on COVID-19 vaccines for primary school children

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has given provisional approval for children aged five to 11 to receive Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.

Primary school aged children will receive two smaller doses of the vaccine, three weeks apart.

Vaccinations for the group are expected to kick off on January 10.

Senior Research Fellow into Immunisation at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Associate Professor Margie Danchin, says it’s “such good news”.

She said there’s robust evidence that the vaccines are safe for kids.

“We were just waiting for that more robust vaccine safety data to come out of the US,” she told Tony Jones, filling in for Neil Mitchell.

“Now there have been over five million kids vaccinated over there since early November and there’s been no vaccine safety signal.”

Associate Professor Danchin expects Term 1 next year will be more consistent for children, with fewer school closures due to positive cases.

“The more kids that are vaccinated to protect themselves in the first incident, but also to reduce transmission to other kids and household members, the better,” she said.

“I think, hopefully, Term 1 is going to be a more stable place for schools.”

But Ms Danchin said children shouldn’t be penalised if they’re not vaccinated.

“I think further compounding harm in kids by excluding them is certainly not my preference, and not what I would recommend.”

Press PLAY below to hear an expert’s view on vaccinating primary school aged kids