Jun 21, 2021New Zealand’s medicines regulator has given the provisional tick for kids as young as 12 to get the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today that there are around 265,000 children in the 12-15 age group. The move follows
similar approvals in places like Europe, the US, and Canada.
The SMC asked experts to comment on the news.Professor Michael Baker, Professor of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, comments:
“This approval extends use of vaccine to youth aged 12 to 15 years, conditional on Pfizer providing further data from
its clinical trials. Vaccinating children in this age group, and eventually down to infants, is important for any
population hoping to reach sufficient vaccine coverage to largely interrupt circulation of the Covid-19 virus. While
children only rarely get serious ill or die from this infection, they are important in the spread of the virus.
Vaccinating them will protect the children themselves, and those around them, including grandparents and others who are
vulnerable to serious outcomes.
“Overseas, the use of Pfizer vaccine has already been approved for children aged 12 to 15 years in several countries and
regions, including the US and EU, and several million teenagers have already been vaccinated.
“This approval has little immediate effect in New Zealand as the vaccine roll-out underway here will not reach children
of this age until late in 2021. By that time it is likely that vaccine use will be approved for even younger age groups
as trials are currently underway vaccinating children down to 6 months of age. It is obviously important to test safety
and efficacy in all groups prior to widespread administration.
“There is an ethical issue with vaccinating children in high income countries like New Zealand. The WHO has urged high income countries to instead
donate supplies to low-income countries (through the global fair-access scheme Covax) ahead of vaccinating children and
teenagers.”
No conflict of interestDr Hiran Thabrew, Child Psychiatrist and Paediatrician, The Werry Centre, University of Auckland, comments:
“This will be a relief for many parents and provide an increased sense of security for young people to be at school and
travel overseas. However, given the slower-than anticipated vaccine rollout, it may also increase the public’s worries
about whether the supply is adequate to meet the demands of a larger pool of individuals. The proposed age-related
banding system will be even more important to ensure that the vaccination of more vulnerable older people in the
community is not further delayed.”
No conflict of interestProfessor Michael Plank, Te Pūnaha Matatini and University of Canterbury, comments:
“It is very good news that Medsafe have now given approval for the Pfizer vaccine to be used in 12–15-year-olds. This
approval is based on solid data showing the vaccine is safe and highly effective for this age group. The final decision
to make the vaccine available to 12–15-year-olds will now be taken by Cabinet. If Cabinet approve this, then most
12–15-year-olds will become eligible for vaccination towards the end of the year, after older groups have had their
turn.
“Although children are at lower risk of serious illness or death from Covid-19 than older people, it is still essential
to vaccinate them for two reasons. Firstly, if children catch the virus, they can spread it to other people, including
higher-risk groups or people who can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons.
“Secondly, although the risk of death is very small, children can still suffer significant long-term health
complications as a result of Covid-19, often known as Long Covid.
“Vaccinating children will be an important part of maximising our collective immunity against Covid-19. The higher we
can get this collective immunity, the more options we’ll have for safely allowing international travel to resume.”
Conflict of interest statement: “I am partly funded by MBIE for research on mathematical modelling of COVID-19.”Dr Emma Best, Medical Advisor, Immunisation Advisory Centre, University of Auckland, comments:
“The provisional licensing of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine is good news, showing the safety and efficacy of this vaccine in
children 12- 15 years. It gives NZ some choices to make about when to consider this vaccine for children in the future.
At present, ensuring those most at risk of COVID disease are protected means getting the vaccine out to all adults and
older teenagers first as outlined in the roll out groups 1-4.
“For the health of Aotearoa/New Zealand tamariki, children need to continue to receive on-time vaccinations against all
the routine diseases of childhood that protect them from diseases like whooping cough, measles and meningitis. School
immunisation programmes also have important work to do ensuring the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer and booster
tetanus and whooping cough vaccines are delivered for all
“As COVID-19 disease is much less severe in children, and appears to be less commonly acquired and transmitted by young
children, it is likely there will need to be a considered approach to how to best to apply vaccination in children aged
12-15 years to help protect them and the community.”
Conflict of interest statement: “I work as a medical advisor to the Immunisation Advisory Centre in addition to my
specialist clinical/hospital work and as a senior Lecturer, University of Auckland Department of Paediatrics; Child and
Youth Health. I am a member of the PHARMAC anti-infectives subcommittee.”