FUREY: Only half of Canadian parents are anxious about their children being beaten

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New survey data from the Angus Reid Institute suggests that only about half of Canadian parents want their children to receive a COVID-19 vaccine soon after it becomes available.

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“If a COVID-19 vaccine is available to your child (ren) ages five to 11, will you vaccinate them or not?” the pollster order surveyed.

Half, 51%, said they would do it as soon as possible. Then 18% said they would eventually do it, but they would wait a bit. Meanwhile, 23% agreed with the statement: “No, I will not receive a vaccine for my child (ren)” (9% said “I’m not sure”).

What should we get out of these numbers? Let’s start with what we shouldn’t take from them: this shouldn’t be a signal to break out into a new round of wars for vaccine culture, this time targeting our children. This is a topic that deserves a mature conversation, not more division.

When the Ontario government announced that they were advising against the use of Moderna in men ages 18 to 24, it was following reports of post-vaccine hospitalizations in that group. So far, there have been more than 100 Ontario youth hospitalized for vaccination-related heart problems.

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Health ministry officials who spoke about the background at the time acknowledged that they had questions about the extent to which this problem would develop in the 5 to 11-year-old age category. After all, the incidence rate of heart problems with both Pfizer and Moderna increases the younger the age group.

Officials cited pediatric doses to be one-third the volume of an adult dose as a mitigating factor that is expected to lessen serious side effects. But waiting and knowing are two different things.

Which forced Ontario to recommend Moderna to young men, and he’s seen it in other countries like Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. pull it completely for men younger than 30, it was a myocarditis incidence rate of 1 in 5,000.

However, current Pfizer studies being considered by regulators in Canada and the US involved only 2,228 younger children, and only half of them received the vaccine. Maybe it’s numbers like these that make some parents say they’ll wait to see how things go.

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Then there is the fact that people here can look abroad and see that no comparable nation is doing this yet and many other countries are not moving as eagerly to vaccinate the little ones as we seem to be in Canada.

“We are not going to continue vaccinating children under 12 for now for various reasons,” said Jerome Salomon, France’s chief of public health, last month when schools were resumed for the fall session. “In part, because we lack sufficient scientific data and studies are ongoing. So we will have to adapt as our scientific knowledge evolves. “

In England, the pressure to vaccinate young children is even less given that they hardly do so for 12-15 year olds. Their vaccine advisory panel actually recommended not giving it to that cohort last month, and now that they do it’s just a single dose.

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“I think the decision to vaccinate children ages 5 to 11 is best made after a discussion with a clinical provider who knows the child, as health needs vary greatly,” said Dr. Stefan Baral, Canadian epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, he told the Sun.

“In the spirit of patient-centered medicine, some children have existing health problems that would make the decision to vaccinate much clearer, while other children do not,” added Baral, who previously co-authored a paper questioning the need for an emergency clearance. of vaccines for children, as “the likelihood of severe outcomes or death associated with COVID-19 infection is very low for children.”

Given all this and more, it is natural for parents to have questions and have different points of view on the subject. Hopefully, when it comes to something involving our children, we can put hostility behind us.

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