With many anticipating the approval of the Pfizer vaccine for youth aged 5-11 by the end of the year, parents in Thunder Bay and across the country are beginning to ask questions relating to the safety of their children.
As a result, the Thunder Bay District Health Unit has a new webpage that provides information about the COVID-19 vaccination for youth and children. Some of the topics covered include how to discuss vaccines with your children, current status of the approval of the Pfizer vaccine for youth, and the steps Health Canada has to make before approving it for the age group.
The web page will be updated as the process moves forward, and if there is approval will help direct parents as to how they would go about getting their children vaccinated.
Recent federal announcements stated close to 3-million vaccine doses would be coming into Canada to vaccinate youth aged 5-11, though a timeline has yet to be specified. It is also being presumed that children under 12 can take a lower dosage of the vaccine and it will still be effective.
Currently, children who were born in 2009 or are older are able to get their vaccine.
The Thunder Bay District Health Unit webpage can be found here.
This comes as U.S. regulators said on Friday that the Pfizer vaccine was extremely effective at preventing infections in children 5-11 without any safety concerns. This does not mean it has been approved for the age group, but is a significant step towards that decision south of the border.
