Fewer children being immunized generally

Health officials in Barbados are concerned about a worrying trend of declining general immunization of children, even as they continue to battle hesitancy among the general population as it relates to the COVID-19 vaccines.

Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic revealed that the immunization rate of children on the island had fallen some 20 per cent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, and he expressed concern that the pandemic could continue to have a negative impact on the island’s immunization programme.

Stressing that there were other health programmes and initiatives besides the national COVID-19 vaccination programme, Bostic said: “Apart from COVID, our immunization schedule contains about 14 antigens against other diseases.”

Children are generally immunized from infancy up to age 15.

“Between 2011 and 2019 our stats would have been in the 90’s for the most part – 90 per cent uptake, except for the MMR2. What we have seen in the last two years really is that we are right now down into the 70s and although some of this is COVID-related we have to be very, very careful that there is not a domino effect in relation to our programmes going forward outside of COVID,” said Bostic.

He was addressing an online forum on Friday in which UNICEF officially launched its UNICEF/USAID COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Survey Report 2021.

The survey collected data from Barbados, St Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The findings relating to vaccine hesitancy are to help influence countries’ strategies to increase COVID-19 vaccine take-up.

The research, which was carried out by the Caribbean Development Research Services Inc. (CADRES) in October and November last year, revealed that a majority of Barbadians were against giving pre-primary and primary school students the COVID-19 vaccine.

It showed that for Barbados, only 33 per cent of respondents said yes they would agree to have children at the pre-primary school level vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus while 51 per cent said no.

Forty-five per cent of those surveyed said they would not give the vaccine to primary school children, and 42 per cent said they would.

As it relates to the secondary school level, 32 per cent of respondents said they were against giving this group of students the COVID-19 vaccine while 58 per cent said they would.

More people are in favour of children at the post-secondary and tertiary level taking the COVID-19 vaccine, with 64 per cent agreeing and only 25 per cent saying they were against it.

The main reasons given for vaccine hesitancy regarding children in Barbados were the young ages, the fact that it is a choice.

Among the reasons individuals gave for deciding to vaccinate children included advice from a spiritual/religious leader, being persuaded by public health authorities, they felt like they did not have a choice and they felt more comfortable because others gave their children and they wanted to take their children overseas.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb