The Tribune

THROUGHOUT our efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the focus has been in trying to protect those who are more vulnerable to the virus.

Previously, that has seen considerable efforts around the world to protect those who are immunocompromised, are older, or who have other conditions that would make them more likely to suffer more serious effects from COVID-19.

Here at home, that has seen older people being urged to get their shots, and being put first in the line when it comes to getting boosters – and rightly so.

However, one group that has not had as quick access to vaccinations has been our children – and worryingly, the new spike in cases has seen an increase in the number of children being affected.

First things first, approving vaccines for children is a process that has taken longer – for many reasons. Routinely, vaccines have been created and tested with older age groups before trials have moved on to younger patients. That’s been the same with COVID-19, too.

Even now, children aged under 12 still do not have approval to receive vaccines here in The Bahamas – which means these new cases are increasingly affecting those who do not yet have vaccine protection.

Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Philip Swann said: “One of the big things that we have seen is that when we started rolling out our vaccination campaigns, we really started with an older population to do so.

“We were seeing higher numbers of infections in general in older populations so it was a great strategy to do because vaccines have been approved first in older populations. So, the paediatric population really has not had access to the vaccinations for a very long period of time, even globally, and then when you talk about subsets of paediatric populations, remember children who are five to 11 years of age have really just had access in some countries to the vaccine.

“Even here in The Bahamas we still don’t have access to those vaccines that are able to protect that age group of children and nowhere in the world do the children who are four years and younger have access to the vaccines.”

Dr Brennen called for rules and regulations to protect children – especially with regard to the opening of schools, a matter to the forefront of minds lately amid tours of schools to see if they are ready for in-person classes.

The timing of such decisions will be crucial – and as much as parents might be longing for children to get back to their classes, and children themselves to see their friends, health has to be the top priority when it comes to making that choice.

Dr Brennen encouraged the use of outdoor spaces – but that isn’t necessarily something that can be counted on as anyone seeing the downpours over the past few days can attest.

Given how important such decisions are, we could do with as much information as possible – for example, how many of those in hospital have been children? Parents would perhaps be reassured to know if that number was small – but equally it is only fair for parents to make decisions based on an informed choice.

The government could also do with pressing harder on public information campaigns to encourage parents to get children who can get the vaccine – those aged from 12 upwards – to get the jab.

Routinely, medics have reported that those who are being hospitalised are those who have not had the vaccine – so let’s give our children the best chance possible, and get them the jab. With numbers on the rise for child infections – it could make all the difference.