Ontario releasing details on plans to roll out vaccine to kids

Ontario is getting ready to vaccinate children aged five to 11 once the approval for the shot for kids comes from Health Canada.

The province’s chief medical officer Dr. Kieran Moore expects to get the federal guidance for the go-ahead with kid-sized COVID-19 vaccinations by the end of this month.

“We would hope to align with our national counterparts to ensure the rollout is simultaneous across Canada for the five to 11 year age group,” says Moore. “And be able to communicate the risks and benefits of vaccination in that age group.”

But Moore says he does not want to talk about the risks and benefits of the vaccine for children until he’s reviewed the data for himself.

“We will ensure that we can have these conversations with parents, that we can answer their questions and any concerns that they have. And have a robust, transparent, accountable communication strategy.”

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As of now, plans have been made with all the public health units in Ontario, along with pediatricians, pharmacies, and primary care providers.

The province says there will be a kids vaccine clinic at, or near, at least one school in every health unit. There will also be mass immunization clinics and mobile clinics.

Consent forms will be distributed through schools and will be available online and in paper at clinics. Parents and caregivers will have to provide consent on behalf of a child before they can get a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The pediatric version of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is a distinct formulation at a lower dose that will be provided to Ontario once it gets approval from federal officials.

Health Canada is expected to approve the kid-sized shot sometime this month after the nation signed a deal with Pfizer to secure 2.9 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11.

Pfizer requested the Canadian regulator’s approval of its COVID-19 vaccine for children in that age group in mid-October. This came after the company submitted its clinical trial data to Health Canada at the beginning of that month.

Last week, Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table issued four recommendations for a successful vaccine rollout campaign on what they say is evidence-based data from previous childhood vaccination programs and findings from behavioural science studies.

With files from Lucas Casaletto