Despite COVID-19 being a negligible risk for children, the Manitoba government has decided to target all five-year-old children and older for experimental vaccination before December.
Manitoba’s Vaccine Implementation Task Force says the team is ready to pump experimental mRNA technology into children between the ages of five and 11 almost as soon as Pfizer receives approval from Health Canada.
Dr. Joss Reimer, who is leading the task force, says that Health Canada was asked by Pfizer for approval on Monday to begin vaccinating children and that such approval may come as soon as two weeks.
Reimer says the team has been anticipating and preparing for the approval for some time and are eager to begin.
“Our teams are actively planning for the approval to be granted soon so that the rollout can begin in Manitoba,” said Reimer, adding that she wants to remove barriers to vaccination.
“Anywhere that is currently offering the vaccine, we want to leverage so that children face as few barriers as possible. Likewise, we are looking at a school-based rollout, and because we don’t know for sure that it will be approved and we certainly don’t know when — we haven’t been able to finalize any plans for a school-based program.”
Reimer also says the province would like to begin a mass vaccine rollout by the end of November.
“We have spoken with Pfizer; as recently as yesterday, we had a meeting with them. They haven’t provided us with any numbers but are signalling generally that we can expect a large supply fairly quickly after approval occurs.”
Reimer further suggests that this is the only way to end the “crisis” phase of the pandemic — vaccinating adults is simply not enough.
“This is a really important development for Manitobans because achieving high vaccination rates in both adults and children is key to controlling the spread of the virus, ending the crisis phase of the pandemic in Manitoba and protecting the mental health of children by keeping schools open and ensuring that kids can participate in all of their normal activities,” Reimer said.
Should Manitoba receive approval and move forward with their plans, they will be the first province to officially begin vaccinating those under 12, setting a dangerous precedent for the rest of Canada.
And, if the last year has shown anything, the slippery slope of government precedents tend to be brought to fruition nationwide. All it takes is one.
