Wondering about vaccinating younger kids against COVID-19? Alberta experts weigh in

Many Alberta parents have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine for kids under 12, as regulators in Canada and the United States get closer to making a decision about whether to approve it.

Health Canada is currently reviewing Pfizer-BioNTech's request to approve its vaccine for 5 to 11 year olds and, on Tuesday, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted in favour of giving it the greenlight.

Pfizer's formulation for kids contains one third the dose used for those 12 and up, as well two doses are supposed to be given three weeks apart.

Data shows the vaccine is 90.7 per cent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in children between the ages of five and 11.

"I think it's really hopeful," said Dr. Cora Constantinescu, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Alberta Children's Hospital who also works in a vaccine hesitancy clinic there.

"We get a plethora of questions.… But if you ask me what the biggest concern is, it's always safety."

Immunizing children is front of mind for many parents right now and a particularly pressing issue in Alberta, according to Constantinescu.

"This pandemic has shown us over and over again that the kids' COVID threat depends on how many infections we have in our society. And in this fourth wave we've had more infections in kids than ever before," she said.

"Based on what's happening in the real world data plus these clinical trials the safety profile [of Pfizer's vaccine for kids] looks very reassuring."

A key concern for parents is the rare risk of myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, which has been documented in mostly male teens and young adults.

Depending on the study you look at, the incidence rate ranges from one in 10,000 to one in 50,000, according to Dr. Jim Kellner, infectious disease specialist at Alberta Children's Hospital and member of the federal COVID-19 Immunity Taskforce

The Pfizer trial is too small to pick this up.

"While that risk is very rare, it's still common enough for people to be thinking about it and worried about it," he said.

The FDA's risk-benefit analysis looked at various U. S. scenarios predicting hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths related to both COVID-19 and myocarditis.