The first shipment of Pfizer vaccine for children is anticipated to land in Thailand on Wednesday, January 26. Beginning on January 31, a total of 3 million doses of Pfizer vaccine are anticipated to be administered to children aged 5 to 11 years old, beginning with children identified with congenital diseases.
Sopon Iamsirithaworn, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Disease Control, told Thai reporters that the vaccine shipment must be examined and tested before it is distributed to the public. The dose for children will differ from that of adults. At 0.2 millilitres apiece, one vial of a vaccine can be given to ten children.
The vaccine will initially be transported to the Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health, where it will be administered to children with congenital diseases. The vaccine will then be distributed to hospitals and schools that have a partnership with the Ministry of Education, and parents will be asked to cooperate in order for their children to be vaccinated.
Many Thai schools have resumed on-site and face-to-face classes, however, numerous parents have objected to the mandatory antigen nasal testing for children.
Anutin Charnvirakul, Minister of Public Health, commented on ATK tests at schools, adding that it is under the consideration and discretion of the school administrators. He feels that every precaution is taken to keep the children safe.
Thailand requested 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. The next vaccination delivery date has not yet been announced.
Pfizer vaccine for children designated for 5 to 11 age group
The most recent batch of the Covid-19 vaccine is scheduled to begin vaccinating children between the ages of 5 and 11 in Thailand. The earlier effort to vaccinate children aged 12 to 18 years old was quite effective, and health officials determined that the Pfizer brand vaccine was safe for younger children in lesser doses.
While the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) works to vaccinate children under the age of 12, City Hall will continue to focus on providing Pfizer vaccine for children, particularly the unvaccinated children above the age of 12. They claim that they will not expand their program to include younger children until they have a bigger number of older children and pupils.
According to the Director of Risk Communication and Health Behaviour Development Office, a part of the DDC, Thailand is fortunate to acquire these Pfizer vaccines for children. She stated that demand is rising all across the world as nations initiate childhood immunization programs. Thailand is just one of several nations that have started immunizing children under the age of 11.
The vaccination rollout in Thailand will prioritize the eldest of the younger demographics targeted in this round of the vaccine rollout for children, with young individuals aged 9 to 11 receiving precedence in the initial shipment from Pfizer.
According to worldwide statistics, the Pfizer vaccine has been consistently demonstrated to be safe for children, and the National Communicable Disease Committee has endorsed Pfizer immunizations for Thai children.
Because children’s bodies are smaller than adults’, they do not require a full dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and the standard adult dose of 30 microgrammes will be cut into thirds to provide 10 microgramme doses to the children being immunized.
However, as part of Thailand’s immunization program, the Pfizer vaccine for children over the age of 12 is on a regular complete dosage.
Children vaccination in Thailand will begin on January 31. Other countries have already started similar efforts, like New Zealand that started rolling out their paediatric vaccination on Monday, January 17.
Pfizer vaccine for children is approved by FDA
Pfizer is now the only vaccine approved for young children, despite Sinopharm requesting for a comparable clearance for children over the age of three in September, only to be denied. However, the Food and Drug Administration is currently reconsidering the use of inactivated vaccines such as Sinovac and Sinopharm in the same way as Pfizer vaccine for children is administered.
The National Vaccine Institute’s Immunity Promotion Subcommittee will eventually decide whether or not to approve certain vaccine brands for use on children. If the vaccine is authorized, parents will be able to choose which type of vaccination they want their children to get.
To be clear, vaccines for children in Thailand have always been and continue to be totally optional, with parents able to accept and consent to whether or not their kid should be vaccinated.
The future of students is in jeopardy since the Omicron variant has driven a major return of new Covid-19 infections every day, and research reveals that only triple vaccination gives adequate protection against severe illness and mortality. With the threat looming, Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang has ordered that all lessons in Bangkok’s 109 government-run schools be held online until further notice.
Pfizer vaccine for children is safe according to studies
Now that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for use in children aged 5 to 11, parents and guardians must decide whether or not to provide the vaccine to their primary school-aged children.
All COVID-19 vaccines must fulfil the same stringent safety requirements as any other vaccine. This includes scientific research, as well as reviews and recommendations from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (CDC).
New findings for children aged 5 to 11 reveal that the vaccine is as safe and effective in children just as it is in adults and adolescents.
A trial of around 2,250 volunteers found that the vaccination is 90.7 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infection in children aged 5-11. All of the children were given two 10-microgram doses, which is one-third of the adult and teen dosages, with the injections spaced 21 days apart.
Children aged 5 to 11 have a more healthy immune system than older children and adults, allowing them to get a lower vaccination dosage while still producing antibodies to defend against COVID-19 infection.
After the second dose, the children in the initial group of roughly 2,250 were observed for at least two months. The second group of 2,250 people who joined the trial later were followed for at least two weeks. In either group, no significant vaccine-related health concerns were recorded. The research is ongoing, just as it was with the adult trials.
No major side effects
Some children in the research, like their older counterparts, had mild to moderate side effects such as soreness at the injection site, weariness, and headache. Those adverse effects were generally just temporary, lasting a day or two.
After vaccination, a small number of patients in older age groups, especially male teens and young men, suffered myocarditis or pericarditis – inflammation of the heart muscle or heart lining that generally heals on its own. Patients with myocarditis usually heal rapidly and have no long-term impact on their hearts.
The advantages of the COVID-19 vaccine exceed the hazards of post-vaccination myocarditis. When compared to immunization, the risk of myocarditis after coronavirus infection is much greater.
Pfizer’s clinical study for children aged 5 to 11 years old resulted in no cases of myocarditis or pericarditis.
Vaccine reduces the risk of infection in children
Any concerns regarding the vaccine’s safety should be considered against the known hazards of COVID-19 infection. Although children’s symptoms are often less than those of adults, some children with COVID-19 can develop serious lung infections, get extremely unwell, and require hospitalization. Children who recover from even mild to moderate COVID-19 are at risk of acquiring MIS-C, a serious multi-system inflammatory illness.
