Parents urged to vaccinate children amid rising Omicron cases, says pediatrician

Data from Health Canada shows 39 per cent of kids between the ages of five and 11 have received a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

A pediatrician who has researched COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among parents in Canada, the United States and Israel is urging people concerned about getting their children vaccinated to talk to a health-care provider as the Omicron variant pushes cases to all-time highs.

Dr. Ran Goldman, a professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of British Columbia, said the current national vaccination rate among children aged five to 11 is too low, so parents with questions about the safety of the vaccine should get them answered through a personal connection with a pediatrician, family doctor, nurse or pharmacist.

“If those health-care providers listen first and understand what is the basis for the hesitancy, and exactly what questions parents have, they can then address this with their knowledge and expertise. This is the key and the magic, the green card, to getting parents to understand and accept vaccines,” said Goldman, who practises in Vancouver.

Goldman said past campaigns involving pediatric vaccines have shown that conversations with health-care providers are meaningful and have helped to change hesitant parents’ minds.

Data from Health Canada shows 39 per cent of kids between the ages of five and 11 have received a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which the agency approved for that age group last November.

“It’s not enough,” Goldman said. “I know we are failing our children in terms of the rate of vaccination. It’s not only for the children that receive them, it’s protecting all in the environment around them, including their parents, their grandparents, sick or healthy, who need to go to work.”

British Columbia matches the national vaccination rate of 39 per cent, as does New Brunswick, while the lowest rates are in Alberta and Yukon, at 37 per cent, according to government data in those jurisdictions.

In Ontario, nearly 45 per cent of children up to age 11 have received their first dose while the highest vaccination rate, at 67 per cent, is in Newfoundland and Labrador.