The T&T Medical Association is now endorsing the Pfizer paediatric COVID-19 vaccine for children 5 to 11 years.
It comes one day after its public relations officer refuted claims by the Minister of Health that it had endorsed the vaccine, saying that the association was still deliberating on it.
In a release , the association encouraged parents to get their primary school children vaccinated to stop the disease’s spread and to also prevent children from developing Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C).
“The Trinidad and Tobago Medical Association continues to strongly support the Ministry of Health’s Vaccination initiative against SAR-Cov-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) in an effort to decrease the spread of the virus locally amongst adults and children and diminishing the burden on our health sector and its workers. Vaccination helps us get one step closer towards ending this pandemic,” it said.
To facilitate the vaccination of children, the Medical Association called for changes to be made at the sites.
“To facilitate optimal uptake, we suggest that vaccines should be available after school hours at the mass vaccination sites so as to reduce school absenteeism. There should be sufficient opportunity to engage in discussion about this with a health care provider, at all vaccination sites to aid parents in making an autonomous decision on behalf of their children,” the association said.
It noted the vaccine has been approved internationally and regionally by the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Food and Drug Administration, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).
The association said the vaccine is important as colleagues notice “there has been a surge in paediatric (all age groups) cases seen at the health centres, district health facilities and by family doctors and paediatricians alike.”
“Sadly, our local data shows that during this pandemic, 12 children (under the age of 16) have died from complications arising from COVID-19 infection,” it said.
On MIS-C, it noted there are already 86 cases in the country, seen predominantly in children who presented to the hospital for COVID-19.
“Their illnesses range from new onset seizure disorder, to diarrhoea and severe abdominal pain and they require hospitalisation. Internationally, increases in MIS-C cases have been directly linked to increased SARS-Cov-2 infection —it is not unreasonable therefore for us to feel that the trend here is the same,” it said.
On Wednesday, the organisation’s PRO Dr Frank Ramlackhansingh refuted claims by Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh that it had endorsed the vaccine.
We did not make any statement saying we’re in favour of the vaccine for the 5 to 11 years old,” he said.
“Neither did we say we’re against it, but we did not say we endorsed it. This seems to be what he seems to be putting out.”
However, he said the organisation was evaluating the information and a position will be adopted by the weekend.
