Childhood COVID-19 vaccination rates have stalled, with fewer parents taking their primary school-aged kids to get the jab. Nationally, just 5000 children aged five to 11 received a shot every day last week compared to 47,000 daily doses the week prior.
The slowdown is surprising, and the reasons unclear: with school back in full swing, do parents have less time? Are anti-vaxxers, such as the Convoy to Canberra, having an impact? Are parents simply waiting a little longer to learn more about the vaccine and its effect on kids?
How hesitant are parents?
According to bi-monthly Vaccine Sentiment surveys conducted by the federal government, in January 10% of parents of kids aged five to 11 didn’t plan to get their kids vaccinated, while another 15% were unsure. This is a decrease from December, when 14% said they wouldn’t get their kids vaccinated and 13% were unsure.
Despite the decrease in uncertainty, this hasn’t translated to inoculation data. University of Sydney vaccine update specialist Julie Leask told Crikey the stalling rates were surprising.
“It was a little bit unexpected … and the stalling has been quite remarkable,” she said.
Nearly half of kids aged five to 11 have received their first COVID-19 dose in the month since they were deemed eligible by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, while 78% of kids aged 12 to 15 are double dosed.
“We had very good uptake in the first month [when kids were deemed eligible for the vaccine]. There was a rapid trajectory and update and then we really started to see a plateau,” Leask said.
“Clearly, we’ve reached the point where there was high demand and now we need to reach the remaining people — most of whom are planning to vaccinate.”
What can be done?
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Dr Bruce Willett told Crikey misinformation spread on social media was a clear concern, as was the lack of clear communication about the importance of the booster.
“While the message about getting kids vaccinated to protect their grandparents is out there, we don’t necessarily understand that, although COVID-19 is milder on kids in general, there’s still a minority of kids who get complications,” he said.
“Doctors need to emphasis that message about benefits.”
Nicholas Wood, paediatrician and associate director of Clinical Research at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, told Crikey it wasn’t clear why parents hadn’t come forward.
“We don’t know exactly what parents’ concerns are,” he said.
Woods said it was unclear whether parents were concerned about vaccine side effects, perceived long-term impacts of the vaccine or the risk of the disease.
“Parents may be wondering what the benefit of the vaccine is given kids generally catch very mild cases of the disease … in terms of what parents want to know about the safety, we need to be a bit more nuanced,” he said.
He said one of the questions raised was about long-term side effects of the vaccine, and whether in 20 years’ time there could be a link between the vaccine and other diseases.
“[But] there’s never been any vaccine linked to long-term diseases,” he said.
“We know most vaccine side effects appear at the six-week mark, so if anything is going to happen, it’ll happen by then.”
He said those waiting for five-year outcome studies had to weigh up the risk of COVID-19, the chance of severe disease and developing long COVID during that period.
Another concern, Wood said, was that people were becoming fatigued over the ongoing doses needed. Israel has started rolling out fourth doses to its population as booster dose efficacy begins to wane.
“There are probably some people saying, I’ll take my chances over getting top-ups of this every four to six months,” he said.
Would targeted messaging help?
Wood said there was “always room for improvement” around targeting cautious communities about the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine, with information not widely disseminated, limited TV ads and concerns around reaching multicultural and linguistically diverse communities.
But Leask said she wasn’t sure public health messaging campaigns would solve everything, especially in the absence of data.
“We don’t know what the barriers are in each population,” she said. While there’s generally slower uptake in lower socioeconomic groups and huge disparities among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, understanding concerns was a key issue.
Given most parents have or are planning to vaccinate their children, Leask said the drop-off could simply be down to logistics and practicality. Kids might have caught COVID-19 so their parents are waiting the recommended six weeks before getting them vaccinated, they might be busy with the new school year, or there might not be appointments at convenient times.
“Having convenient vaccination centres and slots, with healthcare workers available and recommending it, can sometimes overcome mild hesitancy,” she said.
Leask will be hosting webinars and round-table discussions in the coming weeks with experts and policymakers to better understand the cause of the slowing rates of uptake.
I think it is because so many parents now realise that the vaccine won’t stop you catching or passing on Omricon. The vaccine was developed for COVID-19 and seems to have very little efficacy on the most recent variant, Omicron. Furthermore, we’re now 2 years into the pandemic and standing on the cusp of an endemic virus. So we have a situation where we are being told we may need to be jabbed up to 5 or 6 times a year for the rest of our lives in an environment of massively mixed messages regarding the vaccines. There are also those of us who have had very bad reactions to these vaccines who would be hesitant to inflict the same on their children.
I certainly don’t blame parents of primary school children for not rushing out and getting their kids jabbed.Surely by now we have learnt that you could tripple vaccinate the entire global population and you still wouldn’t get rid of this virus.
Same old. Vaccine dont always stop you getting a disease. They do prevent serious symptoms and reduce the likelihood of transmission. Even with omicron.
No-one is talking about getting rid of covid19. It is about containing the worst effects of it. In 2019 two people a day died from the flu. At the moment, with mask mandates still in force and the vast majority of people vaccinated, the seven day average of deaths from Covid is 46 a day. I would hardly call that being on the ‘cusp of an endemic virus’. Unless, of course, you think that’s just fine, and that the people who died probably aren’t worth much anyway because what use are people with comorbidities. That seems to be the way that people like you are downplaying this.
I don’t get it; we are containing the worst effects of it by being highly vaccinated, and in particular by having our most vulnerable people vaccinated. The comparison with the flu is specious, since you’re comparing a near-peak weekly average with a yearly average, and in any case endemicity isn’t defined by death rates. I think Simon’s points – that we’re likely on the cusp of an endemic virus and that the vaccination status of kids has little effect on Omicron’s trajectory – are both perfectly valid.
Epidemic diseases do not become Endemic which is “Infectious diseases 101”.
The false proposition that this can be the case, is what is allowing our politicians to skate around the reality, and social media and the anti-vaxxers are supporting this next big lie, after the Trump one.
If we (rich western nations) want this disease to disappear as SARS1 and MERS did, then we need to vaccinate the populations of India and Africa, as well as our own and/ or contain its movements.
Why?
The huge amount of unstable Corona Virus currently circulating in large human populations of unvaccinated people and as the virus mutates as it spreads, it is likely to find a form which is more vaccine evasive, highly contagious and a 50 to 50 possibility of being more virulent.
The number of people in Australia who have died from Covid19 have co-morbidities, although I fail to accept that as a rich western nation, the people who had childhood asthma, or have a congenital cardiac malformation (1 in4) are valueless. The death rate from Covid is falling as was always the case with epidemic diseases at the end of the current wave, until the next successful variant comes along, probably out of the enormous population of India.
No one is talking about the fact that in Australia in under 8 weeks we have had nearly 3000 die, because the number of infections were so high in Omicron. This wave could have been contained and the death rate also, but, the let it RIP mob held a Covid party in NSW from the 15th of December and ruined Christmas and New Year for all the hospital and public health staff.
This federal government is about to hold an election and the subsiding wave of Omicron means that the average punter will think this nightmare is over. Unvaccinated children are sitting ducks for the next variant because they have no antibodies to Corona virus. If they have become infected they have a 1 in 20 chance of developing Long Covid, which lasts for up to 2 years or so. Covid19 has only been around that long and so we don’t know how long it can last, possibly forever.
The external borders have been opened, the influenza season is going to be horrific and the next SARS2 CoVid19 variant will be established before most people realized it has made it here.
“Epidemic diseases do not become Endemic which is “Infectious diseases 101”.” Well, most experts are saying this is turning into an endemic now. You can always find a pessimistic prediction to support your predispositions, but it’s contrary to the weight of current expert opinion.
“If we (rich western nations) want this disease to disappear as SARS1 and MERS did, then we need to vaccinate the populations of India and Africa, as well as our own and/ or contain its movements.” But we already know vaccination isn’t enough to stop omicron, so only your last option (contain the population’s movements) would achieve the stated goal of making the virus disappear. I’d like to see any politician propose more lockdowns in the current environment. Good luck with that.
“No one is talking about the fact that in Australia in under 8 weeks we have had nearly 3000 die”. Well (a), are you serious? We are slapped in the face with death numbers every day! And (b), I’d say what’s missing from these death figures is context. It’s not stated that 1100 die in NSW in the average week from causes other than covid. If you watched the news you’d think covid accounted for 90% of deaths. It’s also not stated that in 2019 the median age of death in Australia was 82, while the median age of covid deaths is…you guessed it – 82. It’s also not explained to the public that in 2020-2021 Australia had a ‘negative blip’ in the excess death curve (i.e., fewer people than normal died), in the order of around 15000 people, in large part because of the reduction in communicable diseases associated with lockdowns and social distancing. This means we have a large cohort of vulnerable people who ‘ordinarily would have died already’. Even without covid, these people would be vulnerable to other diseases, and statistically there is some ‘catching up to do’, unless in 2019-2020 there was a lasting step-change in our life expectancy coinciding with the arrival of this virus, which I seriously doubt. As I mentioned in another post, it’s sad when the 89 year-old with three co-morbidities dies from/with covid (not always a clear distinction, as pointed out by Qld’s CHO), but it’s less sad if we know that in ordinary times she would have died two years ago with the flu. Again, context.
“Unvaccinated children are sitting ducks for the next variant because they have no antibodies to Corona virus.” Again, I think this is a pessimistic reading of the situation. No variants so far have seriously affected children in significant numbers. One may come along, and in that case I suspect our response would be very different. You mentioned the risk of long covid in kids, but then it’s not even clear how vaccination affects long covid in the general population; some studies say not at all, if you do suffer a breakthrough infection, which is basically ‘the norm’ with omicron. And whether vaccination protects kids from long covid when exposed to omicron…well, now we’re just guessing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pro vax, but we shouldn’t overstate its achievements.
Safest option? More lockdowns! Again, good luck with that.
I am an expert, thanks.
Ha. Welcome to the club.
Couldn’t agree more, Simon. Would also add that “mixed messaging” is coming from all directions – not just Social media and Anti-Vax groups. The media itself, GPs and Nurses, State and Federal governments.
Even a quick look at the RACGP website over the past two years shows a general concern from doctors about the pros and cons of being vaccinated against Covid.
And I’m sorry to upset anybody reading this – but why should children have to protect the elderly with a vaccine, instead of the other way around?
As a 65yo (almost), I find it shocking that we as a society expect any child under 12 to be vaccinated against Covid, based purely on the assumptions made in the article.
As GA quite rightly points out, there are many contributing factors to both a slowdown of Boosters and children’s vaccinations.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/21/quite-dangerous-australias-slowing-covid-booster-rollout-worries-doctors?
“But why should children have to protect the elderly with a vaccine, instead of the other way around?” I had the same thought. It seems the moral equation has been flipped on its head.
The idea behind vaccinating children is actually to give them some antibodies for the next variant, which may be more like Delta, which causes a lot of deaths and long term damage to children. The vaccine does help reduce a child’s ability to transmit Covid19 generally.
A vaccinated child is less likely to transmit the virus to its younger siblings and relatives as well as its older relatives. Home from kindy and kisses their 18 month old sibling scenario.
The vaccination then reduces the amount of circulating virus and also reduces the chances of the complications of Covid19 which occur in children such as Kawasaki Disease (deadly); Multi-Organ Systemic Inflammatory Syndrome (can kill and certainly leaves permanent damage to the child); Long Covid……..
I fail to see how this has flipped any moral requirement of the adult protecting the child. Vaccinating children helps protect them from becoming unable to work, think or live a full life.
If the word Covid was replaced by Polio, which only badly damages 1 in 10 people who contract it and kills about 1 in 20, would we be having this discussion?
I’m sorry, I must take issue with the last sentence. “If the word Covid was replaced by Polio, which only badly damages 1 in 10 people who contract it and kills about 1 in 20, would we be having this discussion?”
But the death rate with Omicron is around 1-in-1000, and that’s heavily skewed towards the very old (whether vaxxed or not) and unvaccinated adults at the older end of the spectrum. The death rate for the rest of the population (vaxxed adults, and kids whether vaxxed or not) is thus much, much lower. I think the population can tell the difference between a 1-in-20 event and a ~1-in-10000 one. As I said in another post, if a variant came along that affected kids to the degree you’re suggesting, then we’d obviously act differently.
The mortality rate in children is a specious argument, when talking about SARS CoVid19 BA1 variant (Omicron). The argument I put up for vaccinating children was not to prevent them dying (a very rare occurrence in the first world), it was to prevent them from developing life limiting complications of Covid19.
The chance of Long Covid, so far is 1 in 3 have symptoms 6 months post infection and some data from Stellenbosch University is that 1 in 20 have Long Covid symptoms 2 years post infection.
Preventing your child from contracting Covid19 is an idea, vaccinating them reduces the chances of bad effects.
“The mortality rate in children is a specious argument”. But you said: “If the word Covid was replaced by Polio, which…kills about 1 in 20, would we be having this discussion?”
My goodness, it’s like arguing with my wife! What, you thought the goal posts were over there? Oh no, my friend, they’re over here now.
It is so nice to hear that you have swallowed the new big lie, being banged on about SARS CoVid19 changing its entire nature of an “Epidemic” disease, apparently so that it will become “Endemic”. This is the new epidemiologist’s excuse, to replace the “Herd Immunity” by infection, which cost 10’s of thousands of people their lives needlessly in Europe.Red is the new black??
2022 is going to be the year of the greatest number of avoidable Covid deaths in Australia
Omicron and its sister variant BA2 are vaccine evasive, however the ability to transmit this virus is reduced by about 20% and the severity of the disease is also reduced in vaccinated children.The newer variants are likely to be more vaccine evasive.
I know that doesn’t sound like much and is it worth it?
The really nasty stuff which this government appears to want to ignore, so that they can open up the economy is the Long Covid cases.
Side effects from Covid infections such as the Multi-Organ Inflammatory Syndrome which can kill or disable the child and isn’t counted as a Covid death, the Kawasaki Disease which can and will kill a child and then the others such as children who have stroked and lost IQ or been blinded or developed renal disease, reduced lung capacity, unmitigated fatigue………. they are still collating these as this viral disease.
The incidence of these effects are reduced by vaccination.
This is the message not being pushed by a useless federal government, hoping to slide in on a grateful populations short lived relief. If the next variant to emerge happens to cause more obvious childhood damage, the federal government will not be responsible, will they?? The parents are probably going to say “Nobody told us”.
Couldn’t the fact children are back at school so there are many fewer available hours to get a child vaccinated be a simple explanation?
We need to get my old high school nurse on it. She’d have every 5 – 16 year old in the country done inside a month.
There was none of this sit-down and make yourself comfortable nonsense in her clinic. You’d get a withering glare if you broke stride one second more than absolutely necessary while you were walking through the vaccine booth. As for her propensity to indulge anti-vaxer nonsense, well you’d only try that on her once.
Interesting how parents like everyone who have been subjected to decades of climate science denial and need for personal ‘liberty’ from the same, have made vaccination difficult to conduct by the need to start with oldies then cascade down to younger, with children last, but within a relatively short 12+ months (in most developed nations).
Successful vaccination programs generally have support, without negative media and influencer interference, by doing kids first and then carrying protection and/or avoidance of disease through to adult years.
Logic and evidence is that kids nowadays are more mature and relaxed than their parents who follow Australian media and politics?
Since it was only last week (or the week before) that ‘multiple mainstream medias reported Pfizers request for emergency approval to vax kids under 5, I don’t think we’d have to look further than that story for what’s making people hesitate. Look up the story for yourselves – no conspiracy theories here. Pfizer requested emergency approval to double vaccinate kids under 5 while they trialed a third vaccination for them – even though their own trials said that double vaccination didn’t work on this age group. Let’s say that a different way to make sure it “lands”. Their double vaccination trial DID NOT WORK for under 5’s. So they’ve started trialing a THIRD JAB, hoping that will rescue their vax (and their money). In the meantime they want emergency approval for the double VAX that didn’t work, with just the hope that the third jab does. That is so far beyond ridiculous that it shows just how far we’ve sunk that they could even have the cojones to apply for it.
The two doses didn’t work well enough for 3yo & 4yo, and they think a third dose will work well enough. It worked fine in 6mths – 2 yrs. The full vaccination series for 6mths – 4yrs will likely be three doses.
Well, it sounds like the study was/is pretty limited, e.g., small sample size, not a clinically meaningful endpoint (antibody response as opposed to virus response), run while delta rather than omicron was dominant, etc. So, y’know, not a great look if they’re trying to ram it through.
As someone who has been trying to book the 2nd shot for his daughter – you can’t get an appointment at a useful time for kids. Nothing on weekends, nothing in early evenings. Its pull your kid out of school (and take time off) or nothing.