Rate of COVID-19 vaccination among B.C. kids 'a concern' for health officials

The stubbornly low rate of children in B.C. who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 is "a concern" for health officials, but no concrete plans to change their approach have been announced.

On Tuesday, as kids headed back to class in schools where restrictions and mask mandates have been lifted, the province released the latest vaccination numbers.

Just over 57 per cent of kids aged five to 11 have received one dose – a number that's barely changed in the past six months. 

Dr. Penny Ballem, who is in charge of the province's immunization rollout, noted this figure and said she is "hopeful we can pick up on those results" during a push to get more people boosted in the lead-up to respiratory season.

"Children across the province are returning to school and it's very, very important that as parents, as families, as grandparents that we really try and ensure that those children and youth are protected against COVID," she said.

"We just encourage them to carry on and take their vaccine as it's being made available throughout the next coming months."

This approach, according to one expert, is the same one the province has been taking since vaccines were approved in November of last year – and plateauing numbers suggest it is not effective.

"Every time someone talks, they give some weak, standard, boilerplate message," said Dr. Marie Tarrant, a professor in the School of Nursing at University of British Columbia Okanagan.

"But I don't really see any actual sort of effort or program -- any sort of strategy. I don't really see a strategy other than urging people to get vaccinated. I just think that there's no real plan -- not that I'm aware of or that has been made public -- to up those rates."

The province also provided data on progress on vaccinating kids between six months and four years old. Registration has been open since mid-July and the first doses were administered on Aug. 10. So far, 12.7 per cent of eligible children have been registered while just over eight per cent have received one shot.

Tarrant says this is not surprising to her, noting that research she has done suggests parents' hesitation is higher when it comes to vaccinating younger children.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Tuesday rates among kids under 12 are "a concern for us" and that the uptake for the youngest kids is not "where we want to be."

WHAT'S BEING DONE TO MOVE THE NEEDLE?

Henry alluded to a few things that are being planned or will be rolled out soon in an attempt to increase the number of children who are vaccinated.

While British Columbians 12 and older can get a shot at a pharmacy, vaccines for kids are only currently available at dedicated clinics run by health authorities. Setting up clinics in the province's public schools is one thing Tarrant thinks could make a big difference, as it seems to have done in other jurisdictions.

"It is more convenient for parents and for parents with multiple children," she said.

Asked about whether province-wide, school-based immunization was in the cards, Henry said that is something that is being left in the hands of individual health authorities.

"We know that local public health knows where those strategies work best," she said.

Henry also mentioned equipping pediatricians and family doctors to administer the vaccine, saying it's something the province is working on but stopped short of providing further details.

"We know that those are trusted sources for parents where they feel comfortable bringing their younger children to get immunized," she said.

Tarrant is on board with this idea, saying that making COVID-19 vaccination available at the same time and place as other routine childhood shots is something Tarrant thinks would work better both short and long-term.

"They can encourage, they can talk to their patients but they don't have the vaccine in their clinics, whereas for many, particularly if they have a population of clients who are children, they will have all the routine vaccinations in their office," she said.

Another effort Henry mentioned was an awareness campaign to be launched sometime in the coming weeks in order to "build some confidence and to help parents answer the questions that they have about vaccination."

While Tarrant says all of these moves would be welcome, she is concerned about how the school year will play out given that other measures like masks and distancing are no longer in place.

WHY HAS PROGRESS STALLED?

Henry offered several explanations for why parents have been holding off.

Among the reasons she says she has heard are families being busy over the summer and worries over potential side effects.

"It's a decision that we heard many parents are anxious to make for their children, that they have concerns about," she said.

"Many parents want to wait a little bit and see how it's working and other children."

The province will be releasing updated modeling next week and Henry said the data shows "a lot of young people, especially school-aged children" have been infected in the last six to eight months and are delaying vaccination or choosing not to get their kids vaccinated for this reason. Henry stressed that getting a vaccine three months after infection is advised.

Tarrant says this is consistent with her research among parents which has found that a sizable percentage are "really more concerned about the vaccine than they are about COVID." However, she says even if most kids do get a mild infection, the Omicron wave showed that an increase in overall cases did correlate with an increase in hospitalizations among children.

The return to school, she says, brings a very real risk of reinfection for children – something Tarrant says we still don't fully understand the impact of.

"You have kids in schools this year with no precautions and most of them are going to get it again, particularly if they're not vaccinated and not boosted," she said.

Tarrant also suspects that the lifting of mandates and public health orders is a factor. When kids between 12 and 17 became eligible in June of 2021, restrictions were widespread. By September of that year – when proof of vaccination became mandatory – nearly 80 per cent of kids in this age group had one dose. That number has since increased to just over 87 per cent.

"Not long after the vaccine for the younger kids came out all the mandates were gone. … Removing all the restrictions, removing all the precautions, you're sending a message that it's not a problem anymore," she said.

"Everyone understands the need to go back to normal. I think we are in a way, way, way better place than we were even a year ago -- but we need to be vigilant."