Govt to review three-dose Pfizer jabs for children

The Health Ministry has said it will review information on the three-dose Pfizer vaccine, which gives children 80 percent protection against Covid-19.

Pfizer is the vaccine which the Health Ministry intends to use in its disputed drive to inoculate children.

In a statement posted on its website, Pfizer reveals: “Following a third dose in this age group (six months to under 5 years), the vaccine was found to elicit a strong immune response, with a favourable safety profile similar to placebo.”

The midtrial report indicates that 10 children out of the 1,678 developed symptomatic Covid-19 from “seven days after the third dose and accrued as of April 29, 2022.” The trial is still ongoing.

Dr Charles Olaro, the director of clinical services at the Ministry of Health, said they are still focusing on the vaccination of children aged 5 to17 years.

“Information will keep coming, but we will look for how we can customise it,” he said.

He added that the number of doses being given to adults will still apply to children.

“If it is a two-dose vaccine for adults, it will remain the same,” he revealed.

Pfizer for adults is a two-dose vaccine, although fully vaccinated people are being advised to get a booster shot.

Many parents and activists say the vaccination of children is not necessary because Covid-19 doesn’t have a significant effect on children in terms of severe disease and deaths.

But Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the Health minister, said those against vaccination of children lack knowledge. She nevertheless added that parents should consent before the vaccination of their children.

“The World Health Organisation has guided that unless 70 percent of the population is vaccinated, meaning adults and children are vaccinated, we are not yet safe from Covid. That means everybody, five years and above, needs to get vaccinated. We have been vaccinating adults 18 years and above. We have made good progress but not good enough to say we are out of danger,” she said.

“We have enough vaccines for those 12 years and above. We don’t yet have vaccines for 5 to 11 years because there is a paediatric dose of the Pfizer vaccine. It is only the Pfizer vaccine that we can use on children. We continue encouraging eligible adults to get vaccinated,” she added.

The government has so far received more than 44.7m doses of vaccines—both in donations and procurements. Of this, it has managed to vaccinate 71 percent of the targeted 22 million (49.6 percent of the overall population) with one dose.

Forty-eight percent of the 22 million are fully vaccinated while 59,000 people have received their booster dose, according to the Health ministry statistics.

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