Jab loss

Thousands of doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children ages five to 11 may be headed to the dump at the end of this month.

Public Health Specialist and Co-coordinator of the National Vaccination Programme Dr Elizabeth Ferdinand has revealed that, so far, just 240 first doses have been administered and only 135 children have been fully vaccinated from the 14 400 doses of the paediatric vaccine gifted to Barbados by the British Government in August.

“The expiry date for the vaccines is the end of November,” Dr Ferdinand told Barbados TODAY. “We are trying to get some more but at the moment I don’t have any more in stock. So, just like how the adult Pfizer will run out, so will the children’s vaccine run out at the end of this month until I get some more.”

“There are a lot of children out there who haven’t even had a first dose, so I am very disappointed with the uptake,” she added.

Dr Ferdinand stressed that those children who have already had a first dose must get the second by the end of November as no more will be available after that time.

“And for those who want to have their first dose, they must come as soon as possible because the minimum period of time is three weeks between the first and the second dose,” she pointed out.

Just a few days after the August 26, 2022 arrival of the paediatric vaccines, Dr Ferdinand urged parents to take their children to polyclinics and other vaccination sites to get the vaccine that is administered at a smaller dose than what is given to adults.

The senior medical official has suggested that the low uptake might be a result of parents not seeing the urgency of giving their children the vaccine at this time.

“I think the reason is that we have opened up the country fully and we don’t need it to go to school, we don’t need it to go anywhere anymore, and I think the parents are saying ‘why worry to have it’. But I don’t know the full reason, I can only assume. It’s a general feeling, I think, that the COVID is over and we can do as we like now, go back to normal living,” Dr Ferdinand said.

However, she stressed: “The pandemic is not over, there are still cases in every single country but not as bad, thank God, not as serious, but they are still having new variants; in other words, the virus is still mutating. So far, the last few variants were not as serious but you never know what could happen.”

While she is satisfied that her team executed strategies to inform and educate the public about the importance of children receiving the vaccine, the public health specialist acknowledged that there was always room for improvement.

“We could have done more, but I think that we did quite a lot. We started vaccination in the first week, then the second week school opened and then the decision was made that you don’t have to have it to get into school,” Dr Ferdinand said.

“And then too, remember the whole controversy with this [IDB] survey and stuff which had nothing to do with us at all but it still created that sort of feeling with parents. That’s why we haven’t been really pushing it very hard. To go in with a campaign now, we only have three weeks left.”

At the same, she continued to stress the importance of children getting the jab, explaining that it is not only advantageous to the young recipients but also helps to protect people around them.

“We must remember that the vaccine can, first of all, prevent them from getting a serious attack of COVID, and even if they do get it, it would be mild and not as infectious because there will be less coughing so there will be less transfer over to other people.

“When you cough, you sneeze and so on, you blow your nose, all of those secretions are in the air and you can infect those around you. So, having the vaccine cuts down on that. So, not only children around that child at school [will be protected] but also at the home where they are with sisters and brothers and their parents and grandparents. Hopefully, it will help to prevent the older people from getting COVID, who are the ones more at risk of dying or having serious effects,” Dr Ferdinand added.

anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb