LISA MILLAR:
Planning is already well underway for the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations to children early in the new year. The Federal Government says it's still waiting on final advice from its vaccine advisory group, but it wants to start offering vaccines from 10 January. Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine has been provisionally approved by the nation's medicines regulator, the TGA, for children aged between five and 11, and the Prime Minister says he wants the rollout to begin before school resumes next year.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Authorities are hoping that vaccinating younger children will dramatically reduce the spread of the virus in primary schools and kindergartens, and the other states have been quick to respond, with Victoria's Premier already flagging the possibility of pop-up vaccine clinics at schools. John Skerritt heads the TGA, he joins us now.
Professor Skerritt, very good morning to you.
JOHN SKERRITT:
Good morning, Mike.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Why is it important that young kids be vaccinated?
JOHN SKERRITT:
A lot of reasons. Even though they don't get as sick as adults, they have a pretty strong role in spreading it back to family members, and, of course, that can include parents but also of greater concern, grandparents. And we know that the older you are, the impacts of getting seriously ill or worse with COVID are greater. The other reason is just so kids can do what kids are meant to do - go to the school, play with their friends, do sport, do exercise, do social things. And we are worried about the mental health impacts on all the lockdowns that children have had over the last couple of years. And finally, there's about one in 3000 children who, even though they mightn't get all that ill with COVID, have this long-term multi-system inflammatory syndrome where, even when they recover from COVID, they can be quite ill for some months with fever, rash, intestinal, heart, and neurological issues. And even though it's one in 3000 of those kids, it's a very serious condition. So lots of reasons why it's a good idea to vaccinate children.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
What assurances can you give parents and guardians that the vaccine is perfectly safe for their kids?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Well, there's been extensive safety studies and the adverse events appear to be the same as in older children, adolescents, and adults. So there will be, in maybe half of the kids, sore arms, and maybe a quarter of the kids, there might be fever for a day or so, a headache and not feeling well, but they recover quickly. We know that there is a very rare condition that is, again, generally short-lived, an inflammation of the heart; that seems to occur in older teenagers more than younger teenagers. That's been our experience in the 12 to 18s rollout. So parents should feel comfortable that the vaccine has been assessed and we will continue to monitor its safety.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Okay, all going well, the vaccine rollout begins on 10 January, assuming ATAGI approves it. Take us through the nuts and bolts, John Skerritt, what's the interval between doses for kids aged five to 11?
JOHN SKERRITT:
Well, this is actually part of the ATAGI considerations that are underway. So what TGA has said is that any interval, three weeks or more, is suitable for these young kids. But, for example, in Canada, it's been decided to make it eight weeks because as with adults, there were experiments- well, real-world experiments, real-world experience, that showed in a number of countries that if you increase the interval from, say, the minimum of three weeks up to a couple of months, you got greater effectiveness. And so ATAGI are currently considering a whole range of things including whether to go for a bigger interval than three weeks. After that, it'll be working together with healthcare professionals on education, on the dose, there's a whole lot of special instructions and training that healthcare professionals, be they primary healthcare, GP clinics, whether they be state and territory clinics, whether they be school-based clinics, there's a whole lot of educational processes that have to be done. And then, of course, there's a physical rollout itself in the lead-up to the 10 January, involving both primary care and the states and territories.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Finally, before we go John Skerritt, looking at broader vaccination program, we're now well and truly moving into the booster or third dose stage. Will the TGA, you reckon, at some stage, possibly soon, consider reducing the interval from six to three months for that booster shot?
JOHN SKERRITT:
So the duration of the booster shot is currently six months. It is something that is being currently looked at by ATAGI with input from the TGA in the context of Omicron. Now, currently, there doesn't seem to be evidence to reduce the gap between booster shots - six months in Australia still seems to be appropriate. But over the next two to three weeks we'll learn a lot more about Omicron, and whether there is sense in reducing that interval. But at the moment, you can imagine vaccine experts worldwide are working very busily on Omicron.
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Yeah, all eyes on Omicron, that's for sure. John Skerritt, appreciate your time this morning, thank you so much.
JOHN SKERRITT:
Thank you, Michael.
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