Covid vaccine manufacturers turning focus on children

Manufacturers of Covid-19 vaccines in America and Britain have turned their focus to testing the serum on children to make sure the vaccines are safe for the youngsters.

There is still no Covid-19 vaccine approved by notable health agencies and regulators such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) or American Food and Drug Authority (FDA) for children aged 15 years and below. 

But children are also the least affected, according to information from Uganda’s Ministry of Health and WHO.    

Pfizer, an American vaccine manufacturer, announced last Wednesday that the final stage of their clinical trial in 2,260 adolescents aged between12 to 15 years, demonstrated 100 per cent efficacy at stopping Covid-19. 

The chief executive officer of Pfizer, Mr Albert Bourla, said they are now looking for approval to start immunising children using the serum.

“We share the urgency to expand the authorisation of our vaccine to use in younger populations and are encouraged by the clinical trial data from adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15,” he said.

WHO granted emergency use approval to Pfizer vaccine in December last year for people aged 16 years and above, making it the first Covid-19 vaccine to be approved by WHO. 
Uganda’s Health ministry earlier said they were also considering Pfizer vaccines as one of the serums to inoculate the population. 

Pfizer requires an ultra-low storage temperature of about -60 degrees Centigrade and is also more expensive than AstraZeneca, which makes it less desirable for poor countries.
But Pfizer is not the only company making progress in testing Covid-19 vaccine for use in children. 

AstraZeneca, the developer of the vaccine which is being used in the country to inoculate the population, announced two months ago that they were testing their vaccine in children aged six to 17. 

Do we need vaccines for children?
The severe cases of Covid-19 and deaths have majorly been reported in the elderly and those with underlying health conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, according to government statistics. 

Dr Alfred Driwale, the head of immunisation programme at the Ministry of Health, told Daily Monitor yesterday that the data released by Pfizer is very encouraging but that the Ministry is still focusing on the elderly who are at higher risk.

He said: “The vaccines are not enough due to high global demand and the little we are getting is aimed at preventing severe forms of Covid-19 and death. So people who are at the highest risk are the elderly.’’

So if we have not covered our elderly with the vaccine, we will not want to jump to the age group which is less affected.”

International experts, however, warn that delaying or not vaccinating children against Covid-19 could create a dangerous reservoir for the coronavirus that will sustain infections in the population.

“Preventing Covid-19 in children [through vaccination] could also mean preventing disability from long Covid, a condition in which children have lingering symptoms of fatigue, muscle pain or neurologic symptoms months after infection,” American doctor Marty Makary wrote in an article published by the Washington Post on March 24.

Around 55 per cent of Uganda’s population (22.8 million people) are 17 years and below, according to the Uganda National Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), which are ineligible for the AstraZeneca vaccine. 

This means the estimated 80 per cent of the population that should be vaccinated to attain herd immunity that scientists prescribed cannot be attained without the vaccine for children. 

Herd immunity is the long-promised goal at which the pandemic slows to a halt to allow for return to normalcy because the virus has run out of people to infect.

A total of 90,196 people have so far been vaccinated in Uganda using the AstraZeneca vaccine which government acquired through donations. 
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