Toronto prepares families for COVID-19 vaccination of children

BY PAUL JUNOR

There have been concerns, fears and anxieties as parents, caregivers and guardians anticipate the possibility of having their children under twelve vaccinated.

The Boston Globe reported on Friday, October 29^th, 2021, that the FDA approved the administration of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to children between the ages of five to eleven. These children will receive one-third of the dose administered to teens and adults.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention met on Tuesday, November 2^nd, 2021, in order to finalize details with respect to which children should be vaccinated first. In anticipation of these developments, Team Toronto has initiated a series of outreach and education sessions, as well as town halls in order to inform the Toronto community.

Parents of children between the ages of five to eleven who attend public schools will be receiving an email and an invitation to respond to a survey to “Support vaccine planning.”  This invitation will also be extended to parents whose children attend private independent schools as well. The survey will be administered by Toronto Public Health (TPH) and the City of Toronto VaxTO in order to “Better understand parents’ intent to vaccinate their children, how they would prefer to have their children receive their COVID-19 vaccine, and to obtain critical information on socio-demographic factors such as race and income.”

John Tory, Mayor of Toronto, is optimistic and positive about this development. He states in the press release, “While our work to get 90% of eligible residents vaccinated is continuing, we are also readying for when the vaccine will be available to protect kids five to eleven. We want to hear from parents, so we made sure we designed a vaccination program that works for kids and their families. This is just one more example of the outreach we are doing to prepare for this effort. This work is so important and will help us get kids vaccinated so they have the best protection against COVID-19 and so our schools can be as safe and as open as possible.”

Councillor Joe Cressy, Chair of Toronto’s Board of Health who has been at the forefront of advocating for the vaccination of margnizalied and at-risk communities is supportive of this campaign. He states, “At every stage of our immunization campaign, connecting with people on the ground has been critical to our success. Now, as we prepare for the rollout of vaccines to children aged five to eleven, we’re committed to engaging directly with parents, families, and community leaders to have active conversations about vaccinations for kids.”

In addition, Dr Eileen De Villa, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health is a strong proponent of this campaign. She states,” When vaccines are approved for use and when we have supply we will ensure that we bring every resource to bear on this critical component of the vaccination campaign.”

The survey will be available as of Sunday, November 7^th, 2021. It consists of fifteen questions that will be available online at s.tphsurvey.chkmkt.com in multiple languages. Parents and guardians will receive them from their children’s public school boards. In addition, there will be town halls for specified multilingual communities as well as neighbourhood-based telephone halls to ensure that the public has access to timely, necessary and relevant information for informed decision-making.